Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I also express my thanks and good wishes to the Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, a man who has experience at Cabinet as Minister, Tánaiste and Taoiseach over a 13-year period. He has been an excellent ambassador for the country, a great Taoiseach and a great Minister over the past 13 years. I wish him well and thank him for his public role for the country over those years.

I support also the proposal that we should have a debate here about road safety. I have raised the issue of road safety here on a number of occasions, particularly as regards the lack of statistics being put together after accidents, whether there is drug testing or blood testing. There is no collation of those figures at all. The Road Safety Authority should make that a priority, and I hope that the Acting Leader will arrange for a debate on road safety here with the Minister.

I also urge the Government to have a real think about reducing the VAT rate on food and separating the VAT rates for accommodation and food for the hotel industry. This is crucial. We have seen many small cafés and restaurants close because of the increasing cost that has been put in place. The Government needs to be congratulated in putting together packages to help small businesses, but there have been quite a number of severe things put in place for small businesses over recent years. The Government should look at reducing the VAT rate to 9% with immediate effect, particularly seeing that we will be coming into Estimates and the budget period in the coming weeks. That should be a priority for the Government.