Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. The numbers he brought before the House the last day were most valuable to us, and these were the figures we included in this amendment. It is always important that we have the best possible data to inform policy. This is a major issue in which 290 people lost their lives during the year. Having the kind of information the Minister is considering would be of value to us. As to whether this amendment is the way to do it, I accept his judgment as he is closer to the administrative system than Senator Quinn or I, but it would be a useful starting point to get beyond the statistic that they have no licence and get the means by which we can tackle this problem. I thank the Minister because he was the person who brought these data before the House, and that was a good example of what Parliament should do.

If we have policy informed by data that are not exactly what it says on the tin or do not reflect what is actually happening on the roads, we could make mistakes and draw the wrong policy conclusions. The fact the Minister raised these issues and is cognisant of them - we will be talking to representatives of the RSA on how to address these problems - makes me more than happy to withdraw the amendment, in light of what he said. I thank him again for raising these issues the first day we discussed this.