Martin Conway (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister and I am delighted to take this opportunity to commend publicly him on becoming Minister. This promotion was well deserved. The Minister is doing an excellent job. As the only Member of the Oireachtas who does not drive, because I am prohibited from driving, I would swap my position and accept the legislation, if I could drive. I do not have a tolerance for people who are arguing the toss on this issue. It is a matter of the safety of human life. There are social issues, and in my community in a rural constituency there are divided views on the legislation. There is a belief that a person should be able to go out and have two pints and drive home, but the research has proved beyond any doubt that even after one pint, a person's judgment is impaired.

There are practical actions we can take to assist publicans. We could issue each publican with a free PSV licence and enable and facilitate them to bring their customers home after the pubs close. That would be a sensible proposal and it would not cost anything. It would create a vehicle for dealing with the issue of social isolation. There is merit in deregulating the bus service.