David Norris (Independent)

I welcome the moderate and balanced tones of Senator Donohoe on behalf of Fine Gael. I also welcome his partial conversion to socialism because he said that in these circumstances, everyone should contribute according to his or her means. The old socialist maxim is from each according to his ability, to each according to his need. We need to bear the needs of the people in mind as well as the needs of the economy.

I again raise the subject of taxi drivers. I believe there have been 30 suicides in the past year among this group of people, which is very worrying. It is particularly worrying when we learn that the Taxi Regulator told an Oireachtas committee yesterday that she has a surplus of €20 million in her account while at the same time she is pursuing a policy where taxi drivers are compelled to get rid of their cars when they are nine years old, even though they have passed the national car test with flying colours. That means the national car test is rendered redundant. She also mentioned that the market would regulate this. We learned something about markets recently and the fact that they are suspended in the interests of the large people and that they crucify the small people. We must start to consider the human element in our society.

I spoke at a most interesting meeting in Athlone some months ago organised by the National Irish Safety Organisation. When doing research, I learned that the two most vulnerable sectors in terms of accidents are construction and farming. The number of accidents are completely disproportionate compared to other sectors. There were two tragic farm accidents yesterday. The head of the State organisation very sensibly called for farmers to conduct safety audits in their farms. I hope the Leader will urge the farming organisations to continue to act as responsibly as they have been and to try to ensue we avoid as many as possible of these very sad incidents by instituting safety audits on farms. It is very difficult because farmers are so familiar with the practices but they need to look at them with a fresh eye and be aware of the dangers to which they and their families may be exposed.