Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Second, we are lucky to have a corps of business people who are prepared to roll up their sleeves and work. Certainly they look for supports, to which they are entitled, but they do not have the deontas mentality. They work for themselves, to keep their staff employed and to keep their hotels open. I congratulate them. The Minister might be asked to come to the House to see if that approach could be adopted nationwide because God knows we need it.

On a less happy note, I heard the chairman of the Road Safety Authority speak in a radio interview as I was travelling to Dublin about the unfortunate increase in road fatalities. Last year was a great year in that there were a small number of deaths. However, every death is lamentable and avoidable. The chairman of the authority outlined a number of reasons for the increase in road fatalities, including additional commuting, people who live outside cities have to commute to work, students who cannot access accommodation close to their college campus have to travel to college, as well as increased economic activity. These are all the parameters, but the real reason for the increase in road fatalities, and this has been the reason for years, is speed. We are totally obsessed with the idea of drink in this country. There all the problems associated with it, and God knows I know about them, and drink driving is a scourge. There has been too much focus on one aspect and if I was asked, I would say the major cause of deaths on our roads is driving at speed. As I travel to and from this House on the N7 twice a week, on not one of the trips I have made have I not encountered examples of excessive speed, dangerous speed and reckless speed. That is only one person's anecdotal experience on a weekly basis. The Minister might be asked to come to the House to discuss these matters. I also support what An Seanadóir Mac Lochlainn said about Iarnród Éireann's infrastructure, which is another aspect of the Minister's brief.In fact, the Minister is a little tardy. He has been in office for some time and we are still waiting for the Department to examine this. He is behind his colleagues in that regard.