I gave notice that I would like to raise this Private Notice Question, and I thank you, Sir, for the opportunity of doing so. It concerns a very serious matter. I wish to ask the Minister for Local Government if he will arrange for immediate consultation between his Department, the Department of Justice and Kildare and Dublin County Councils on the provision of stricter traffic control on the Dublin-Naas carriageway in view of the distressing fatality rate on this fast highway.
Private Notice Question. - Dublin-Naas Dual Carriageway.
I would draw attention to the statement made by me on 16th instant, the terms of which I now repeat:
The general problem of accidents on the Naas Road is under examination by the Department of Local Government in consultation with the authorities concerned and the Minister hopes to be able to issue a statement in the near future. It would be improper for him to comment on the causative factors involved in individual accidents which are the subject of police investigation.
Does the Minister not consider that in view of the fact that this is very obviously a killer road, the utmost expedition is called for and that this cannot be left to the ordinary progression of Civil Service methods, that it requires emergency steps and that the Minister should take such steps as are open to him at present to get the various parties concerned to see what can be done to put a stop to the appalling slaughter which has frightened every motorist approaching that stretch of road?
The consultation the Deputy asked for has been taking place and the first stage of it has concluded. I expect to have some recommendations put before me very shortly.
Pending the outcome of these investigations and in view of the shocking accidents that have taken place there, would the Minister consider imposing a speed limit of say 50 mph on the stretch between Naas and Dublin?
There is no question of "pending". Consultations have been taking place and I expect recommendations very shortly, and I shall consider them when they are put to me.
In order to open this matter up fully, I should like permission to raise it on the Adjournment.
Everybody knew you wanted to cash in on it.
None of that now.
That was obvious.
You mean that if we raise an urgent public matter, we are doing no more than cashing in on it? That is your outlook and mentality?
That is what you are doing. What the Deputy asks for has been done, and the Deputy knows it.
I do not want to tell you what you are as I did before because I want to remain in the House tonight.
Has the Minister's attention been directed to the fact that the British Ministry of Transport has imposed on the motorways of England, against considerable opposition by the vested interests, an overall speed limit of 60 miles per hour? I do not give a fiddle-de-dee whether it is 70, 60, 50, 40 or 30—in view of the fact that this has proved practicable in operation, will the Minister consider as an interim measure, while fuller courses are being devised, prescribing a maximum speed limit on this road in order to steady public opinion and to make it manifest that it is the Government's intention, the local authority's intention and the Garda intention to bring the problem under immediate control?
That will be one of the suggestions considered.