Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Many people where I come from, and I suspect many others around the country, feel a great deal of sympathy for former Minister, Deputy Naughten. While we all understand the importance of correct procedures and scrupulousness when it comes to procurement, it is clear to me that the former Minister was very keen to pursue an important policy objective, namely, to deal with the scandal of the absence of sufficient broadband across our country, and in rural areas in particular. I believe he should be commended on that.

I want to raise an issue that also arose last month concerning the number of arrests for drink-driving. In September it was reported that there was a discrepancy between the figures issued by An Garda Síochána and those released by the Central Statistics Office, CSO. We all know how important information is for good policy decisions. During discussions on the recent Road Traffic (Amendment) Act 2018, the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, made a number of claims about the connection between accidents and deaths caused by drivers with a certain level of alcohol in their system, which provoked some debate. In May 2017 Deputy Tóibín submitted a parliamentary question to the Department of Justice and Equality about drink-driving arrest statistics. Incredibly, it took 16 months for the Department to reply, which raises a whole other issue. The reply showed a discrepancy of almost 15,000 arrests between Garda figures and CSO figures for the offence of drink-driving over the past ten or so years.