Dominic Hannigan (Labour)

I second Senator Norris's amendment to the Order of Business.

I am concerned to hear reports that nine out of ten of the nation's crèches fail to comply with the standards set out by the Health Service Executive. Reports suggest that some children are subject to being locked up while others are subject to bullying and these reports are a cause for concern among parents. It is important to ensure the level of concern is borne in mind. Some of these breaches of standards are minor in nature. Child care is a growing area. I refer to a report on its annual statistics by the Department of Health and Children published yesterday which predicts a baby boom with total births of up to 70,000 this year, an increase of 11% over last year's figures. It is important to ensure the child care system is expanded to cater for this demand and to ensure standards are among the best in the world. I ask the Leader to invite the Minister of State with responsibility for children to the House to outline his plans for the child care sector.

I also wish to raise the issue of road safety which was raised by other Senators. Fresh from the Minister's 90 miles per hour U-turn on the issue of provisional licences, it seems judges have been forced to throw out 5,000 cases concerning learner drivers because they do not know what is the appropriate fine to impose. As a former member of a local authority, I am also concerned to see that while the Minister's pay will increase by 12%, his Department is overseeing a reduction of 13% in the sums of money expended on non-national roads. A total of 60% of the nation's traffic is carried on those roads and they have some of the highest accident rates. If the Minister is serious about road safety, I would like to see him improving legislation in this matter and providing increased resources in these areas.

Someone once said that if Ministries were provisional licences, the Minister, Deputy Dempsey, would be on his third licence. I would like the Minister to outline to this House his intended actions on road safety.