Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)

I too commend everyone involved in ensuring that Julian Assange, at long last, got his freedom and a way out of the entrapment that was put in place. As my colleague has said, he stood up for democracy, for freedom and for ordinary people having a voice when they saw tyranny going on around them. We do not have enough of that in the world anywhere.

In regard to the situation in Europe, the European elections have thrown up a problem for many countries where we have seen the emergence of right-wing and reactionary forces.

Much of that has happened because of the way Europe has framed the economic debate around austerity, in particular. The impact of that and what it has done to so many ordinary communities across the length and breadth of Europe has opened up a space for the far right to emerge and find a voice. This is very dangerous. As we send a new Commissioner and other representatives from Ireland to Europe, we want to ensure that none of them has any relationship with these far-right organisations.

I will return to a matter that is part of my own brief. It is an issue that is very prominent across all of Europe, namely, road safety. It is certainly something we have a huge problem with in Ireland. I recently attended the EU road safety and Transport Ireland conferences. All of the feeling was that we have a serious issue in Ireland when it comes to road safety. More than 90 people have been killed on the roads so far this year. That is families and communities that have been devastated. It is an issue across the entire continent of Europe where more and more people are driving faster and abusing the roads. One of the major issues in that regard, especially in this State, is policing. Road safety is an issue we need international co-operation in respect of. It is to be hoped that will be brought to bear in discussions at the European Union.

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