Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The media today are covering an interesting story regarding the use of poor boxes in lieu of fines in the courts. This practice has no basis in law and appears to be an inherited tradition. More than €2 million was collected in this way for various charities this year, with Oxfam being the biggest beneficiary of poor box funds. For some reason, my home county of Kerry accounts for more than 25% of the entire sum collected. I note the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar, recently expressed frustration that certain judges were accepting fines or donations to the poor box in lieu of imposing penalty points. In one case, a person caught driving at 95 km/h in a 50 km/h zone escaped conviction by making a donation to charity. The Minister for Justice and Equality should examine this issue in consultation with the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport. Perhaps the Leader will invite one or other of the Ministers to come before the House to discuss the practice of making donations to the poor box because an overhaul is needed.

On a separate issue, is it possible to have the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport come to the House to outline his views on public transport, specifically the lack of joined-up thinking and coherence in the operations of Iarnród Éireann and Bus Éireann? The two companies appear to operate in completely different worlds. I learned of a case involving a pensioner who travelled from Dublin to Tralee last week with the intention of taking the next bus to Listowel, a journey of 17 miles. As he left the railway station with his bags, he saw the bus pull out of the station yard - buses and trains use the same compound but the driver drove on when he tried to hail the bus. When he asked the person at the information desk why the next bus to Listowel would not leave for two hours he was informed that Iarnród Éireann and Bus Éireann do not operate a connecting service. They damn well should run a connecting service. Many of the passengers on the train from Dublin wanted to travel on to the next town in north Kerry. Since hearing of that case, I have been informed that the position is similar in many other locations. This is bad business which harms the image of both companies. While public transport has come a long way in the past couple of decades, the problem I have outlined is not acceptable.