Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is not. I thank the Minister. It was important that Senators had this discussion with him because we want to be on the frontier in terms of where these developments take place.

We downloaded the information on Volvo airbags from the Popular Science website. Volvo will have them, and it has been the leader, as the Minister has said. We might ask other car manufacturers to examine the innovations from that company and from Scandinavia and so on. We will have to have a Leeds study versus Kildare Street discussion to ascertain which one is right.

While I appreciate what the Minister said about penalties, perhaps let us have safer vehicles without any penalties. It could benefit everyone, and perhaps we could examine that philosophy. While one might say that salesmen for such devices will be very eloquent and will visit Government Departments and economics departments, they seem to indicate that having them in every car adds a minimum amount to the price of the car, and we do not go down the route, as the Minister said, of the Garda Síochána trying to police this and court cases costing a fortune. They would be just standard in cars, and perhaps that is a route we might consider.

I am very pleased we had this debate because we must always look for new frontiers in this matter. I will not push the amendment.