Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I pay tribute to the Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar. I did not happen to be around yesterday when the debate took place. I wish him well. It was quite an emotional day for him and some of the Opposition comments could have been more generous on the day that was in it. We have to have respect for one another and, while the Taoiseach did not achieve everything he wanted, he did have some achievements. Any time he came to Roscommon, we always gave him a good céad míle fáilte.

I want to dwell for a few moments on the huge problem we have on our roads. I am sure the Leader is well aware of it. Looking at the Garda road policing operation over the St. Patrick's holiday weekend, we are told there were 1,800 speeding offences, including one case of a motorist allegedly travelling at 209 km/h in a 100 km/h zone. There was another case in Dublin city of a motorist allegedly travelling at 147 km/h in a 60 km/h zone. Over and over we have breaking of speed limits. We also had 175 arrests for driving under the influence, 170 for using a mobile phone and a number for not wearing seat belts. I was caught in the past a couple of times - thankfully not recently - once for using a phone and once for breaking a speed limit, although not to the extent of the instances I have mentioned. I am not trying to pretend we are all perfect here but there is utter madness happening on our roads and the number of people, particularly young people, being killed is appalling. This is a tragedy for parents, brothers, sisters and communities. It is tearing them apart. The stress, upset and sadness of it all is shocking. I appeal to everybody-----