Fiona O'Malley (Progressive Democrats)

Indeed, the Minister is. I have learned something today. I thought we had recently introduced speed limits nationally. Part of the reason the madness which Senator Norris just spoke about exists is, I am surprised to learn, that speed limits are still at the discretion of the local authorities, depending on the type of road, be it national or whatever. The points made by Senator Norris were valid because we must have consistency if we are to expect people to comply with speed limits. I say this as someone who has a tendency to go somewhat fast. A particular bugbear I have is the road around Galway city, which is madness. It is a fine big road and one is required to stay at 60 km/h, which is unnecessary. However, those are the rules and that is what we should be doing.

I have little sympathy, however, for Senator Norris and his big Jaguar. It is his choice if he chooses to have an enormous car. One does not need to have a big car if one is buying one for a modest amount. I sympathise with him, however, regarding his proposal on the taxation of petrol. As the Minister is a clear advocate of the polluter pays principle, would he consider introducing taxation in line with fuel emissions? I believe it is something he may have advocated before.

I pay tribute to the Minister for the work he has done in his short term in office. As someone who has spent the past five years trying to get the building standards updated, I unreservedly pay tribute to him for having done that so quickly. This is a progressive gesture which concerns investment in the future. That is why I ask him to consider Senator Norris's proposal. Perhaps there is not enough time before this year's budget.

It would be a wonderful legacy for the Minister if we changed taxation as it relates to cars and emissions. The Minister knows how much transport adds to emissions in this country. It would make us all think. The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources attended a debate on climate change in this House last week and as he pointed out, were it not for the weak dollar, we would be looking at prices of between €1.60 to €1.80 per litre at the petrol station.

I am not a great driver of my own car as I use the DART or my bicycle to come in to the city. However, I found myself changing my practices and thinking that if prices were reaching €1.60 for a litre of petrol, I could see myself changing my ways. I wonder how many other people would start thinking about it. I am travelling to Limerick this evening and would rather load up the car than go on my own. One thinks about the journeys one takes as one goes. Putting taxes directly on fuel so that the more one drives, the more one pays would be indicative of the Minister's approach to problem solving. It is also fair and in line with his political philosophy.

Having looked through the Bill, I wondered about the position regarding non-national roads. The Minister might not be that familiar with it because his constituency is in a city council area. Being a member of a county council, the reinstatement of footpaths was a topic that interested me. The reason I raise this issue is because of the removal of responsibility for non-national roads from the Minister's Department. We encountered many problems. Trucks would go up on pavements that were reinstated, which would then get destroyed, and people would trip over.

However, because we were a county council, we were not allowed into the city council's pool. I presume Cork, Limerick and Galway could avail of it. As a county council, we were up against the likes of Leitrim, although it is not a good example because it is a small county. We were up against bigger counties when we tried to get this money to reinstate the pavements. It was very unfair. The Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council area has more in common with an urban area than County Monaghan. I would be grateful if the Minister should look at that and see how the outer municipal areas of the city — areas that are not city council areas — would be able to avail of this fund. We had serious trouble with our county manager about it.

In truth, the reinstatement of roads is possibly a local authority issue. On my way home in the evening, I often look at the Merrion Road in the Minister's constituency. This road was repaved recently, certainly within the past 18 months, but is being dug up again. The utilities that need to go in are allowed to do so. However, we accept an appalling standard in respect of the condition of roads they leave behind. More importantly, it is not to the credit of local authorities that they stand over such a standard. The way they are prepared to tar over some area when considerable expense has gone towards enhancing the environment is disgraceful. If one travels through cities in other countries, one sees a much higher standard. We must stop accepting very poor standards on reinstatements. I ask the Minister, in whatever meetings he has with county managers, to ensure this.

I pay tribute to the efficiency of the national vehicle and driver file, which I am sure is enormous. Public bodies are constantly criticised for their inefficiency so it is important to pay tribute to a database and computer-based system which works very efficiently. Now that responsibility is moving to the Department of Transport, it might be able to offer advice to its colleagues in the unit in the Department that is responsible for integrated ticketing. The money spent and the time wasted in this area is a farce when we have not gone any further in terms of integrated ticketing.

We will all start using public transport much more as it gets much better but we must make it easy for people to do so. One of the simplest and best ways of doing this is through integrated ticketing. I hope the officials with responsibility for this area who have devised and operated this database will pass on their expertise to those in the Department of Transport who are responsible for integrated ticketing. I thank the Minister and welcome him to the House.