Joe O'Toole (Independent)

This issue was brought to the attention of the Minister for Transport during the debate on the last road safety Bill. We outlined to him that it works in France and Germany, where speed limits differ depending on the roads, but it was just ignored, as I am sure it will be again.

I support some of the points made by Senator Brian Hayes regarding Northern Ireland and recall that this 20-year process was very difficult to move along. It is almost 20 years since I recall meeting a very lonely John Hume in this House at a time when no leader of any of the parties would speak with him because he had opened up talks with Sinn Féin. It is worth remembering this today. It is also worth remembering that he took the initiative and risk and that the SDLP continued to take that risk after him. As Senator Brian Hayes said, the SDLP has probably paid the price for that to some extent. I felt yesterday that it was the people in the SDLP whom I most wanted to recognise at this point, without taking anything away from the people who have delivered this agreement, particularly over the weekend.

My final point is hugely important and should be enjoyed by every member of Parliament. At the end of the day, this agreement was delivered by politicians. It proves that the political process can work, however long it takes. People of all parties and none should lose no opportunity to make it clear to a sceptical and cynical population that, given a chance and the support of the people, politics can work.

A very disturbing report concerning cancer sufferers, and how they are affected in the west as opposed to the east, appeared in the media in the past 24 hours. It is easy to understand what the reaction might be but I ask colleagues on all sides to consider this matter. Politicians have a major responsibility in this regard. It teaches us that the multidisciplinary approach with a thorough throughput of patients is the best way of dealing with cancer. Rather than fighting for hospitals in every quarter of the country, we should look at the provinces to select locations for multidisciplinary centres. We should demand and defend such centres as a priority. Lives are being lost because of the political argumentation that is taking place on this issue.