Mary White (Fianna Fail)

Senator McDowell made a point about left-hand drive cars. I drove up and down to Cork on Monday and saw a foreign-registered left-hand drive car overtaking about six or seven cars. The driver was pulling out to pass and could not see anybody coming against him on the other side of the road. Such people create a hazard. We have a serious problem with left-hand drive cars. I do not know what the solution is. We need and welcome to Ireland people coming from abroad. However, many accidents have involved people from abroad, and left-hand drive cars are an issue which must be dealt with.

In Dublin city, the clamping is brilliant. I have had my car clamped three times and it will not happen to me again. On one occasion my car was clamped on Good Friday, which I thought was a bank holiday or a semi-bank holiday. I parked on a side road in Rathmines and was clamped. Nevertheless, clamping works. It creates more parking spaces and people are better behaved on the roads.

I fully support the privatisation of speed cameras. The bottom line is that morning, noon and night, people are breaking speed limits. Up and down the country, speed limits are continually broken. Speed limits must be implemented and until that happens, there will be no decrease in the numbers being killed on the roads.

As I said, I drove up and down to Cork on Monday. While I kept to the speed limit of 120 km/h, and stuck with it, my car was being overtaken non-stop. It is farcical that the speed limits are not being implemented. The sooner more cameras are installed, the better. I support the privatisation of this operation.