Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

Perhaps we need another debate on this issue because what this side of the House supports is obviously not getting through to people.

We need to revisit the issue of road safety after the terrible tragedies that recently took place. It was only four years ago that I came upon an accident where two young children died at the scene. It is the most stressful situation for medical workers to be involved in but nobody will ever comprehend the sadness and grief that families who see young children die will experience for the rest of their lives. It is horrifying and we need another debate on road safety to find out what is going on.

Concerns have been raised that the proposal to lower the blood-alcohol limits from 80 mg to 50 mg was included in the first draft report on road safety by the Road Safety Authority but was dropped from the final report. We all know that alcohol and drugs are a major cause of road accidents. We do not see the leadership we expected in reducing road deaths. That is not connected to this terrible tragedy but we must reduce the number of deaths on our roads. It will be a terrible year for so many families across the country and it is time we revisited the debate.

Another matter on which I ask the Leader to seek clarification is the crisis in Portlaoise. It is well known that Dr. Ann O'Doherty interviewed the doctor at the centre of the crisis at Portlaoise Hospital. Can the Minister confirm that Dr. O'Doherty raised concerns about the ability of the doctor to run the service in Portlaoise during the interview and that she was overruled by the HSE, which continued with the appointment? If true, it means the expert opinion of Dr. O'Doherty on the doctor's capability was ignored. The House must find out if that is true. Concerns have been raised about locums in Cork and we must examine what has gone wrong with medical manpower in the health services.