Pat Gallagher (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

Bluetooth hands-free devices do not come within the scope of the prohibition. Holding the telephone in one's hand or resting it between one's shoulder and neck is prohibited. It does not necessarily have to be in a cradle. If one uses Bluetooth it can lie on the seat. The same applies if one uses an earphone, or it can rest in the cradle.

Senator Paddy Burke referred to Australia where research showed that hands-free telephones could be just as distracting. This has not been confirmed and it would be wrong for us to arrive at any conclusions. In this subsection we deliberately left the definitions wide and comprehensive enough to allow the Minister of the day to make long-term regulations. Innovations in communications technologies have advanced considerably in recent years. It is only right that we include this subsection to enable this or any future Minister to introduce other prohibitions by way of regulation rather than primary legislation. Examples include a regulation to ban televisions and GPS on the basis that they would affect one's concentration. For those of us who drive long journeys the radio is sometimes the only company we have. Young people choose to listen to loud music which maybe does not affect them but one wag says some music would put a driver to sleep. He did not mention who the singer might be.