Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Like other colleagues, I want to pass on my sympathies to our colleague and friend Senator Rebecca Moynihan on the passing of her mother. Myself and Rebecca soldiered years ago on the old Dublin Mid-Leinster health forum. I have known her for a long time but only heard her sad news today through Senator Sherlock's comments. I am very sorry not to have been aware of it before now but I pass on my sympathies to Rebecca, her husband Barra and her extended family.

I also want to pass on my sympathies, more generally, to the people of Slovakia whose elected Prime Minister, Mr. Robert Fico, was shot in an apparent attempted assassination. Senator O'Loughlin may have referred to it as well. To see that happen anywhere in the world is shocking but it is incredible to see it happening in one of our EU partner countries, Slovakia. I have been in Bratislava a number of times, including when Slovakia held the Presidency of the EU back in 2016. It is a lovely, small compact European capital and if such things can happen there, they can happen anywhere. We all need to reflect on that when our debate is coarsening. We need to calm down our debates and the level of vitriol against politicians generally.

Senator Ahearn is our Acting Leader today and I congratulate him on that. Yesterday, the Garda Commissioner, Mr. Drew Harris, appeared before the Oireachtas transport committee, of which I am Vice Chair. I am not taking away anything from what Senator Sherlock said about water safety because it is really important. I say that as someone who trained as a lifeguard when I was in school. I agree that water safety is important but so too is road safety. We all need to realise that when we get into a car or a motor vehicle of any kind, we are in a big, powerful lump of metal. Distracted driving is one of the biggest problems, along with speeding, looking at mobile phones and having drugs or alcohol in one's system. All of these things are the causes of road safety deteriorating. The numbers are going in the wrong direction. As we progress into the summer, more people will be travelling on our roads, enjoying holidays and time away from their normal places of residence. We need to make sure that we all concentrate and are not distracted in our driving. I was actually on Radio Kerry this morning, of all places, to talk about this-----