Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The weekend is approaching. We will have the bizarre scenario, which happens every year, when we will change the time. It is an issue that frustrates me on a continuous basis. We are going back to a law about changing the time that was passed in 1918. The world has moved on but we have not with regard to summer time. It beggars belief when we look at mental health issues and people wanting to get out and be active in the evening, that an hour will be taken away. We all get up early in the morning. Having an extra hour in the morning is of no benefit to anyone in my household whatsoever. It is all chaos anyway. We are dealing with something that was enacted in a different time, century and millennium and it makes no sense.

I saw what happened to a new proposal regarding penalty points, road safety, pedestrians, cyclists and so on. There is a safety issue in moving the hour back in the evening when it comes to people on the roads. Whether they are walking or cycling, they could have an extra hour of light, which is bound to be of benefit in those key issues of road safety which the Deputy Leader correctly mentioned in the Oireachtas yesterday. We need to have a real debate. We have been going around in circles on this for years and we are scared to deal with the issue. For the upcoming year, it is one of the issues we should start talking about to make sure we move away from a system that was put in place in 1918 and that we are lined up for a modern society that has a totally different outlook and regime as regards light. We will have a bizarre weekend again. It will do nothing for my house and will create chaos. We need to look at it logically.