Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

When the Minister referred to smoking compromising road safety, I would make the case very strongly that it does. The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar, recently introduced legislation in which he rightly increased the penalties for the use of mobile phones and texting.

We should consider the transactions involved in smoking: finding the cigarettes; finding the matches; lighting the cigarette; flicking out ash and throwing out butts. It seems far more disruptive of road safety than the use of a mobile phone. At the next revision of penalty points we might consider that point. We drew the attention of the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, to German literature on the road safety dimensions which eventually come back to the Minister for Health given that tens of thousands of people are injured in road accidents and approximately 190 people were killed last year.

There is also the atmosphere, the smoke and the dizziness caused in cars. I believe that smoking most certainly compromises road safety and we might look at it the next time around. This is a dangerous, complicated and polluting transaction that takes place. It seems more serious for road safety than the use of a mobile phone or texting which has deservedly attracted the ire of the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport.