I too sympathise with the nurses who are on strike today. I ask the Taoiseach to ensure that they get properly paid and remunerated for the work they do.

I again wish to raise the Road Traffic (Amendment) Act with the Taoiseach which has changed rural Ireland forever. The social fabric that was known to the people of rural Ireland has been blown to smithereens.

Before, during and since Christmas, many people found they could not come out, socialise, meet their friends and do the things they have traditionally done since the foundation of the State. Transport was promised. Rural Link was to get funding. Now we find it is still on a trial basis and is only funded until the end of March. The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, the Minister of State, Deputy Griffin, and Deputy Heydon promised they would provide plenty of funding for transport, yet there has been no extension of services as promised. What we have are plenty of Garda checks. It is not the gardaí who are to blame, because direction is coming from on high. This is happening across every county and every Garda division. People are being checked going to and coming from Mass. Last week an elderly man was stopped coming home from Mass with his invalided wife. What is going on is absolutely ridiculous. People taking their children to school in the morning and women who never drank are being stopped. They are outraged at what is happening. The Government has turned the people against the Garda with its instructions and directions. That is what is happening.

I have to clarify one thing. Eight of us voted against the Bill because it was wrong. Some 75 Deputies voted for it and 74 abstained. I must correct Deputy Brassil, who said on Radio Kerry this morning that Fianna Fáil abstained. That is not true. Some 11 Fianna Fáil Deputies voted for the Bill. That is the truth. The rest abstained. Fianna Fáil abandoned the people who voted for it over the years. Part of the Bill hits drivers with provisional licences. Young people cannot drive unaccompanied. These youngsters need a car to go to school or college, to work at an apprenticeship or to go to sports training.

What about their insurance?

I never interrupted Deputy Brassil. That is the kind of blackguarding he is at. I represent the people of Kerry here. All Deputy Brassil is doing is interrupting me and that is not fair. There are parents and mothers out at 5 a.m. driving their sons and daughters to work or school. They are out again in the evening to bring them home and take them out to football training. They have to go out again at 9 p.m. to bring them home. They are out all day, from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. That is what the Government has done to the people in rural Ireland. They must also wait nine months for a driving test.

I thank the Deputy. When we talk about road traffic legislation we should never forget why we have those laws. It is because of road safety. Thousands if not tens of thousands of Irish people in urban and rural Ireland have lost their lives on the road or become disabled for life as a result of road traffic collisions. Many of us have been affected by deaths on the road in our own families. People never forget the anniversary and always think about it at Christmas time and other times of year. When we talk about road traffic we should never forget the people who have died on our roads and the families that have been left behind. That is the whole point of having road traffic laws. It is why we have them. It is why they have been strengthened in recent years, and they have worked. Last year fewer people died on our roads than in any year since records began. It is in rural Ireland that the lives are being saved. That is historically where most road traffic deaths have happened.

I totally appreciate that the new rules have made it harder for many people to get out and about and to socialise if that involves drinking alcohol. That is why we have invested in Rural Link. I recall that Deputy Healy-Rae criticised that at the time. I am glad to see that he now wants it to continue and to be extended.

None of us criticised it.

I refer to the Irish Independent.

In some cases, the uptake and the demand for these services has been very poor. We need to look at other solutions and we are doing that, particularly around rural taxis and hackney licences. We are trying to liberalise that system and make them more available, particularly at night-time and on weekends.

There are more Garda checks because there are more gardaí. We now have 14,000 gardaí again. How they are deployed and the work they do is entirely a matter for the Garda Commissioner. It is not done under political direction and it should not be done under political direction. Deputies should bear in mind what Garda checks are all about. They are not just about checking people to see if they are over the limit or have been taking drugs or alcohol before driving. It is not just about making sure they are taxed and insured. It is also about denying the freedom of the road to people who are committing crimes. There are a lot of people, as Deputy Healy-Rae knows very well, who are travelling around rural Ireland committing very serious crimes and burglaries. Gardaí say to us that when they run these checkpoints on the roads, they deny freedom of the road to people who commit those crimes. It is not just about drink-driving or catching people out. It is about catching people who are burglarising people's homes, farms and businesses.

The Taoiseach is hurting a lot of good people. We talk about deaths. Surely he knows about isolation and what it causes. We are losing a lot of people through suicide. That is a fact in Kerry and Cork, witnessed before, during and since Christmas. The Government promised to provide transport and promised plenty of funding for it. It has done nothing but hurt the people. The Government promised it would do something to speed up the driving test. Youngsters have been waiting anything from six to nine months to get a driving test. As a result, parents are out in the morning and at night-time to keep the family together and to keep the children going. The Government has done massive harm to people in rural Ireland. It has affected good people who never did any harm, never did anything wrong on the road and never caused a fatality. This is the result of what the Government has done. Its members have abandoned the people who traditionally voted for them over the years. All parties here have done that, in spite of how hard we fought to tell them that what they were doing was wrong. The Taoiseach says this was about saving lives. I will tell the House what it was about: it was about saving the Minister, Deputy Ross, keeping him on the Government's side-----

Hear, hear.

-----regardless of what he asked it for and preventing a general election. I will tell the House one thing. Members of the Government should take Deputy Ross to the doorsteps with them when they go canvassing in the local election or the general election. He will get an answer whoever he travels with. One thing is sure; he will not be travelling with me.

Maybe Deputy Healy-Rae will go to Deputy Ross's constituency.

People who abide by the laws passed by this Oireachtas have nothing at all to fear from the Garda. People who take alcohol or drugs and then drive are a threat to themselves and others. People who drink several drinks, get a few hours' sleep and then drive in the morning are impaired. They do cause accidents, they do kill people and they do cause injuries. That is a law that should be enforced and that is what the Garda is there to do.

On a separate matter, I absolutely acknowledge that there are unacceptable delays faced by people getting driving licences. It varies in different parts of the country but it is something we are working on. We want to get that waiting time down to a reasonable level as soon as we can.