Road Safety: Statements

Minister for Transport (Deputy Darragh O'Brien)

I am sharing time with the Ministers of State, Deputies Canney and Buttimer. I welcome the opportunity to address the House this afternoon to update it on road safety measures. As we all know, travel is an essential component of economic and social life. It needs to be available, accessible, sustainable and, above all, safe. This Government is committed to reducing road deaths and creating safer roads for everyone in Ireland. In 1997, which is almost three decades ago, we saw 472 fatalities on Irish roads. I think we would all agree that would be an unimaginable figure today. That was at a time when we had a smaller population and far fewer vehicles on our roads than today. In the following year, 1998, implementation of the first national road safety strategy began, to tackle this serious issue in a co-ordinated and systematic manner and to bring about road safety improvements in our country. Over the course of that strategy, and its successors, we have witnessed an improvement, which some would say is remarkable, in safety on our roads.

In 2005, there were 396 fatalities on Irish roads. By 2012, this had reduced to 162, with a further reduction to 133 by 2021, which was the lowest level since records began in 1959. However, we must not be complacent or take any of that progress for granted. Three of the last four years have seen an annual increase in road-related fatalities and serious injuries. As of this morning, there have been 18 fatalities on our roads so far this year. Last year, there were 175. That is 175 families and communities experiencing tragedy and loss. Not only that, but for every fatality, there are eight serious and possibly life-changing injuries. I know all of us would say that one fatality on our roads is one too many. It is a tragedy for the family and community. That drives us to do whatever we can to improve road safety.

The four main causes of fatalities are speeding, distraction, not wearing a seatbelt and intoxicated driving, all of which come down to driver behaviour and personal responsibility on the part of the road user. Irish data from a range of sources, including self-reported surveys, observational studies, analysis and collision figures show concerning levels of these dangerous driving behaviours and, in some cases, I am sad to say, a deterioration in attitudes surrounding them. High levels of mobile phone usage by drivers in Ireland have been reported. Research from 2022 indicates that approximately one in four motorists is not only checking their phone but also writing text messages while driving. This distraction can be deadly. World Health Organization research has found that a driver using a mobile phone is approximately four times more likely to be involved in a collision. Let me be clear that no level of distraction, multitasking or mobile phone use while driving can ever be considered safe, nor should this behaviour be accepted in society. We need to tackle and transform societal norms, making it clear that using a mobile phone while driving is as unacceptable as drink-driving. This shift is paramount to saving lives and preventing the heartache caused by so many road traffic collisions.

In a nationally representative survey conducted last year, 11% of motorists said they had driven after consuming an alcoholic drink and 1% of motorists said they had driven after consuming illicit drugs in the past 12 months. Data indicate that Irish drivers arrested for drug-driving are typically male and under the age of 45. Cannabis, cocaine and benzodiazepines are the most detected drugs. The Road Traffic Act 2024, which was signed into law last April, and the subsequent introduction of mandatory drug testing at the scene of serious collisions in May, were real systemic interventions on drug-driving. Allied with the new legislation, the Medical Bureau of Road Safety is working closely with An Garda Síochána, with 45,000 DrugWipe kits available this year. Drivers should be aware that gardaí throughout the country can now rapidly test for the presence of drugs and that drugs stay in people's system for many times longer than alcohol does. Simply put, drug driving is not worth the risk to you or to others.

Speeding remains one of the greatest risk factors on our roads. One in four drivers thinks that speeding 10 km/h or more over the limit is acceptable, yet studies show that even small reductions in speed can have outsized benefits. WHO research shows that a 5% reduction in average speed results in a 20% reduction in fatalities. Most people know that speeding is dangerous, yet all too many continue to do it. Speed reduces the time people have to react and makes collisions much more likely. It also makes it more likely that when collisions happen, they will lead to death or very serious injuries. The Road Traffic Act 2024 also legislated for safer default speed limits on various parts of Ireland's road network. While the final decision on the speed limit on a given road is an important devolved responsibility for each local authority with due regard to the national guidelines, last Friday, 7 February, new default limits of 60 km/h came into effect on rural and local roads. I am pleased that the reaction to this change has been broadly positive. The roll-out of future changes to default limits will be informed by analysis of this phase.

Across government, we are working on multiple fronts to address these problems. The Government's current road safety strategy, which runs to the end of this decade, follows international best practice and aligns with EU targets and the Vision Zero ambition for 2050. Vision Zero is the aspiration to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries by 2050 while increasing safe, healthy and equitable mobility for all. As an interim target, countries across the EU are aiming to halve road deaths and serious injuries this decade. Together with road safety partners, my Department is leading on the development of the phase two action plan under this strategy, which will run from this year to 2027. This plan, which will be adopted in the coming months, will set out high-impact actions which will contribute to Ireland achieving its goal of reducing road fatalities by 50% by 2030 and putting Ireland on track to achieve Vision Zero.

To support this work, the Department of Transport and the Road Safety Authority established a new road user safety forum comprising road safety advocates and road users, representing a range of interests and perspectives, to serve as a consultative body for the emerging action plan.

In terms of legislation, I am committed to commencing the remaining provisions of the Road Traffic and Roads Act 2023, which was signed into law by the President in June 2023. This is a large body of legislation, which took several years to complete. To date, there have been several commencement orders covering BusConnects, dangerous driving, the antisocial use of scramblers, road infrastructure, provisions relating to the Motor Insurance Bureau of Ireland and provisions for e-scooters and e-bikes. From this year, insurers will be permitted to access endorsements on driving licences, meaning that if someone is renewing their licence, insurers will be able to see if that person has penalty points.

I will also support the important work to bring the provisions contained in the Road Traffic Act 2024 into effect. This Act is concise and focused; it seeks to respond to the trends we have witnessed on our roads over the past number of years in a more robust and systematic way. The Act addresses a number of key areas of road safety concern. In response to the concerning rise in drug-driving, the Act introduced mandatory drug testing at the scene of serious collisions on the same basis as would happen with alcohol. The evidence indicates that drink- and drug-driving are now similarly prevalent, and while neither is acceptable it makes no sense to treat drugs in any way differently. To increase the deterrent effect of penalty points the Act introduces a major reform of the system first introduced in 2002. A driver previously caught committing multiple penalty point offences in a single stop would receive only one set of penalty points. Going forward, they will receive at least two sets of points, and potentially more, in the event of an unsuccessful court challenge where three or more offences are detected in the one stop. This important reform will encourage safer driver behaviours and vehicle maintenance standards across the range of penalty point offences, and ensure there is no benefit to drivers from, so to speak, stacking up offences.

A key commitment under the new programme for Government is continued support for the consolidation of the Road Traffic Acts. I am pleased to say that from the start of this month, we have had a dedicated team fully in place within our Department working on this important project. That team will bring this long-standing commitment to fruition. The programme for Government also calls for the introduction of graduated driving penalties and speed awareness courses as an alternative sanction for those who are caught speeding. I intend to bring forward legislation to enable these measures this year, as will legislation that will remove data protection barriers to local authorities directly receiving collision data, to strengthen the legal underpinnings for access to the data on the national vehicle and drivers file and to provide for abolition of the requirement for paper road tax, insurance and road worthiness discs.

Before handing over to the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, I acknowledge the work of all stakeholders across the road safety sector. This is a complex cross-cutting area, and we can only make progress with co-operation and commitment from all those involved, inside and outside Government. This debate and these statements are timely, and we will listen intently to contributions from all parties, be they in government or opposition, and to suggestions of how we can work together in continuing to reduce road fatalities. As I said earlier, any fatality on our roads is one too many. Our condolences obviously go to all those families who have lost people over the course of this year and the past number of years in tragic road fatalities.

An Cathaoirleach Gníomhach (Deputy Mattie McGrath)

Before the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, starts, I take this opportunity to wish him, the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, well in their portfolios.

Minister of State at the Department of Transport (Deputy Seán Canney)

Road safety is a matter that affects all of us. Every citizen is entitled to feel safe on our roads. The Minister set out the key contributors to collisions and touched upon some of the measures introduced in recent years to help restore Ireland's long-term progress in the area of road safety. I will use the balance of my time to focus on some more specific interventions. On the national roads network, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, continues to have full access to collision data under the road infrastructure safety management directive and uses this information to conduct detailed analysis of the national road network to prioritise safety investment. A priority for TII is the maintenance of the existing national roads network to ensure it is kept to a safe and robust standard. This involves carrying out extensive analysis of the network to identify high-risk locations through analysis of collision data and through inspections. In 2024, increased funding of approximately €30 million was made available from within protection and renewal to support safety improvement schemes such as junction improvements and road segregation on national roads. In addition, TII funds road safety training for local authorities and An Garda Síochána.

On our regional and local roads, collision analysis by the Department of Transport on behalf of the local authorities is continuing, using data sets received from the Road Safety Authority. Locations of interest are notified to each local authority and the Department invites applications for low-cost safety schemes towards the end of each year for targeted funding and implementation in the following year. While final figures for last year are still pending, in 2023, approximately 5,000 km of local roads were strengthened and maintained on the basis of Exchequer investment of €334 million. This vital investment assists in maintaining and improving safety on the local road network, which comprises the majority of roads across the country. Last year an additional €30 million was made available to local authorities for rehabilitation of the regional and local road network in response to prolonged rainfall that adversely affected the network. Since April 2024 there has been increased visibility of An Garda Síochána at the roadside with the introduction of 30 minutes of road policing per shift for all uniformed members. This measure, which follows similar practices deployed by police forces elsewhere in the EU seems to have made a positive contribution to the number of collisions and fatalities in the second half of last year.

I also welcome the 20% increase in the hours of deployment of GoSafe vans which was first announced in September 2023. That has now been extended to October 2025. This means the hours of activity per month will continue at the elevated level of 9,000 compared with 7,500 before the uplift. An Garda Síochána is also in the process of deploying three new average speed zones and nine static cameras across the country. Two of the additional average speed zones came into operation in counties Mayo and Cavan in late 2024 and I understand the third is expected to enter operation in County Meath in the coming days. This technology has proven to be a great deterrent to excessive speed wherever it is deployed, both in Ireland and internationally. In addition to these immediate camera measures, TII is leading the development of a comprehensive national safety camera strategy for publication later this year. This will establish the framework for the future investment, deployment and development of our camera enforcement capacity. This strategy will also consider the use of cameras for purposes beyond speeding, such as identifying mobile phone use and non-wearing of seat belts.

With regard to the motoring services we provide to our citizens, there is no doubt that the driver testing service and the national car testing service have both experienced challenges in managing unprecedented demand in recent years. In 2024, 1.7 million national car tests were completed, the highest in the history of the service by a considerable margin. While this demand led to lengthy and unacceptable waiting times for customers at points, I am pleased to report the service was back to its service level target in the final months of last year and is expected to remain so during 2025 aside from seasonal peaks that are already built into the capacity planning.

To address the issue of excessive driver testing waiting times, in September 2024, my Department sanctioned an additional 70 permanent positions for the driver testing service. This increases the total permanent sanction for testers to 200, representing a doubling of permanent posts since June 2022. I understand that recruitment is well under way and that additional capacity will enter the service in the coming months, helping it to progressively reduce waiting times. Once the service level agreement waiting time of ten weeks is restored, it will also establish the basis for us to take further action on the multiple learner permit issue whereby drivers have historically been able to continuously renew learner permits without ever sitting a driving test. An additional priority for 2025 is to progress work on the review and update the national driver testing curriculum to ensure it is fit for purpose, future-proofed and responsive to changes in vehicle technology.

I am pleased to report to the House that the revised transition year programme, Road Safety Matters, which launched in September 2024, has been a great success, having already surpassed the targets for its initial roll-out. In phase 1, 149 teachers representing 138 schools attended in-person professional learning in Swinford, Athlone, Portlaoise, Dublin, Cork, Galway and Donegal. The aim of the programme is to provide transition year, TY, students with the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to be safe road users. They are given information about other basic road safety matters such as the two-second rule for maintaining a safe distance between cars, how alcohol is detected in more than one third of drivers killed in collisions and how to speak up if you are a passenger in a car that is being driven too quickly. I also acknowledge the support and collaboration of the Department of Education, the Minister for Education, IPB Insurance, the RSA and my own officials in realising this new programme. As well as expanding the TY programme into more schools this year, work is under way on the primary level Be Safe programme. The RSA will be working closely with An Garda Síochána to ensure an aligned lesson plan for its team to bolster this programme.

In 2024, my Department commissioned an external independent review of the Road Safety Authority and, on 5 November, the Government approved publication of this review and noted the proposal to reform the Road Safety Authority into two independent external bodies. These two bodies will comprise an operations-focused driver and vehicle standards agency to deliver services like driver testing and the NCT and a new body to lead the State's promotional, educational and awareness campaigns on road safety. A departmental group led by the Department and comprising relevant stakeholders is progressing with this reform. A new road safety communications steering group has also been established. This is led by my Department and will bring together the RSA communication leads and other key stakeholders to ensure co-ordination across upcoming campaigns and programmes of work for 2025.

I echo the remarks made by the Minister. Road safety is a concern for all of society and there is no room for complacency in pursuing our Vision Zero ambition. Every fatality on our roads is one too many. I acknowledge the work of my officials in the Department of Transport and officials across government. Much work has been done but transformation in this space is critical when lives are at risk on our roads. I look forward to hearing the contributions of the Deputies on this important issue.

Deputy Pa Daly

When we discuss road safety, we must remember the many families that have been left devastated by the large number of tragedies and deaths on our roads, especially in the last year. In the opening weeks of 2025, the country watched in horror as 19 people on the island died in January alone. In 2024, 174 lives were lost in the Twenty-six Counties alone. Every one of those was a daughter, son, parent or friend. I express my condolences to the bereaved.

When I think of road collisions, I often think of one of the most dangerous roads in Kerry, possibly the most dangerous, the R556 road from Tralee to Abbeydorney, where there has been a number of fatalities over the last 20 years. For every person whose life is tragically cut short on our roads at least ten more people are left with serious injuries. Research by the RSA suggests that the real figure is likely to be significantly higher due to under-reporting. In 2024, there were therefore probably 1,740 children, young people and adults left with injuries serious enough to be described as life-changing. This is a particular issue in rural Ireland as 70% of collisions occur on rural roads. Many of these roads have issues and have seen multiple collisions on blind corners and junctions. Many of them are also poorly maintained.

It is worrying that Ireland is performing far more poorly than our international counterparts when it comes to road safety. The European Transport Safety Council demonstrated that 20 out of 32 countries showed a reduction in road deaths in 2023 when compared to 2019. In Ireland, there was a 32% increase during this period. The figures demonstrate that road safety must be treated with the gravity and urgency it deserves and that recent governments have failed to achieve this. Rather than making things better, their approach has made things worse. There is not enough enforcement of the rules of the road and there is too little resourcing of road improvements. There is too much focus on a one-size-fits-all approach rather than locally informed solutions. Unfortunately, there is nothing really new in the programme for Government in addition to what has already been proposed. Many of the commitments were made during the lifetime of the previous Government, and the programme for Government is devoid of detail and timelines.

The recent speed limit reductions have thrown a spotlight on road safety and, while there is no doubt that speed is a factor in road deaths and collisions and we must take the necessary steps to get people to slow down, how on earth can you expect the measure to be effective if it cannot be enforced? The lack of Garda presence on our roads is well known. There has been a 41% decrease in Garda road policing numbers in the past 15 years. In 2009, there were well over 1,000 gardaí on our roads. Now, there are 620. The programme for Government contains a vague commitment to free up more gardaí to maximise efficiency and enforcement in roads policing. It is stated in the programme for Government a few times that it is hoped to recruit 5,000 extra gardaí. However, 5,773 gardaí will become eligible to retire over the next four years. The Ministers can do the maths on that. While we undoubtedly need a stronger Garda presence on our roads, we need more gardaí everywhere at the moment and I struggle to see how the Government will free up more gardaí when there are serious shortages combined with a recruitment and retention crisis. To get more gardaí on the roads, we need to open a second Garda training college, maybe even on a short-term basis. This is the only way we will get what is sorely needed.

Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Lowry-led Independents also need to get serious about road maintenance. Many roads throughout the island are in shocking condition and the calls of local authorities and our calls to resource local authorities to carry out this work have been ignored. In Kerry, there are 625 roads on the priority list for the local improvement scheme. Due to lack of resourcing, Kerry County Council can only repair up to 20 roads per year. Under this Government and at this rate, it will be at least 25 years before the council will get to them all if funding is available, although sometimes it is not. I will also highlight the fact that local engineers spent long hours preparing documents for tender to improve the dangerous bend near Glenbeigh National School on the Ring of Kerry and the N86 from Lispole to Dingle but funding was suddenly cut without explanation. I call on the Government to restore this funding. I hope the four Government-supporting Kerry TDs ensure this takes place.

Road safety can only truly be addressed if local knowledge is prioritised and fed in. Another example is the road from Farmers Bridge to the cross at Dromavally, which is very dangerous. On the Banna side of Ardfert, since the speed limit was changed, there have been four crashes into one house over a three-year period. There has been residential development on the road and businesses have had HGVs or farm vehicles pull out onto the now 80 km/h road, which has a history of deaths and collisions. Kerry County Council says it cannot be changed back because many collisions were not logged. The Government still has not addressed the fact that the Road Safety Authority cannot share collision data with local authorities. This has been going on for seven years and must also be addressed. The Government needs to recognise that the approach is not working and to see sense to save lives.

Deputy Darren O'Rourke

I extend my condolences and deepest sympathies to all the families and loved ones who have lost somebody on the roads, in particular in the last year. The Minister spelled it out: there is a large number of contributing factors and there are measures the Government can take in response, be they engineering, roads funding, and the use of improved technologies. However, ultimately the major factor in this regard is driver behaviour – speeding, mobile phone use, and drug and alcohol use.

The comments of a senior member of the Medical Bureau of Road Safety who attended a transport committee meeting stick with me. He said the single biggest deterrent is the fear of getting caught. I emphasise that point. We need checkpoints and visibility. Fixed cameras have a role. Mobile cameras also have a role, but we need to see gardaí at checkpoints. There must be a fear of getting caught. Those are the words that echo in my mind.

I accept that the departmental and ministerial responsibility is cross-cutting. I bring to the attention of the Minister that in 2009 there were 315 gardaí in County Meath for a population of 172,000 people. At the end of 2024 there were 316 gardaí for a population of more than 225,000 people. That is one extra guard for 53,000 more people. The statistics for roads policing are worse. In 2009, there were 30 members in the roads policing unit and at the end of 2023 there were just 16. They are the latest figures that are available and they show the numbers are down from 30 to 16. We need to tackle the recruitment and retention crisis in An Garda Síochána to allow improvement in road safety.

Deputy Sorca Clarke

The Minister is correct when he speaks about complacency on the progress we have made. It is a significant problem. Every fatality and every life lost on our roads is one too many, and so are the life-changing injuries, where in a blink of an eye somebody's life has changed so profoundly, oftentimes because of a split-second decision that is made on our roads.

I draw the House's attention to a piece of research that was carried out last year by University College Cork. It stated that three-lane roads with climbing lanes have fatal accident rates eight times higher than motorways. Undivided roads are six times more dangerous than motorways, and dual carriageways are three times more dangerous. The lack of physical barriers on undivided roads must be addressed. Based on that research and others, motorways are the safest roadways we have in our network, despite the high speed people are travelling at.

In my constituency a significant number of people travel on the M4 to Dublin for work and leisure activities. The Minister must be mindful of the other decisions that are taken that have an impact on road safety. The M4 is a very good example of that. It is now the second most expensive toll road in this State. It runs parallel to the old road, which means you can either spend €1,700 a year to travel on a safe road or you can travel on the old road. The old road takes people through towns and villages. This is pushing traffic onto roads that were never designed to take such a high level of traffic, but it also takes people past housing estates, schools and pedestrians walking on the streets. That has an impact on road safety because those cars should not be there, but they are there because of the cost of using the toll road. Allowing the tolls to increase does not just affect the drivers, it affects road safety in other areas and it places an additional financial burden on the local authorities in those areas to maintain the roads they should not need to maintain to such an extent because that volume of traffic should not exist on them.

I do not hold myself up as any form of mechanic and I would never give mechanical advice, but even I know that the chassis of a car that has been spot welded back together should never pass an NCT, but it has done. I am driving for 25 years, which is when I bought my first car. I have never been breathalysed – not once. I can count on both hands the number of times I have been stopped at a Garda checkpoint. Enforcement has a very big role to play.

Deputy Natasha Newsome Drennan

In 2024 alone, 174 lives were lost on Irish roads. Behind every number is a name, a family shattered and a community left grieving. There are few families across the country that have not been left devastated by the grief of losing someone to a road traffic collision.

The location of the Rhu Glenn Hotel on the N25 near my home in Kilkenny is one such blackspot. Time and again it has been the site of horrific collisions. Just after Christmas, a local woman's life was tragically cut short there. Her family, friends and neighbours are now left to grapple with the loss. I send my sincere condolence to them all. The community has pleaded repeatedly for urgent safety upgrades, yet progress crawls at a snail's pace.

I raised this issue with the county council, which acknowledged the road's deadly history, but offered no timeline for action. I also raised it with Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, but received no response. I raised it with the Minister's office, only to be told it was referred on to TII.

This cannot be a game of pass the parcel. Every delay and deflection risks more lives. These deaths must not be reduced to statistics on a Government spreadsheet. We need a clear plan with deadlines set in stone, not vague promises of reviews with no timelines. We urgently need safety measures to be implemented at the Rhu Glenn Hotel, and other blackspots across Carlow and Kilkenny.

I sincerely hope the Minister's track record as the Minister for housing will not be mirrored in the Department of Transport because his legacy at the former Department was far from inspiring. The track record of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and their priorities has left rural Ireland behind time and time again. Rural infrastructure and the N25 need to be treated as a priority. Communities across Ireland must be shown the respect they deserve, not left waiting indefinitely for safety measures to be put in place. The clock is ticking. We need to see action before another family's life is shattered.

Deputy Paul Donnelly

I send my condolences to Councillor Tania Doyle and Hazel, and also colleagues here in the Oireachtas, on the tragic death of Derek just before Christmas. He was on his way home from this House.

The Minister referred in his introduction to scramblers and quad bikes on our streets, parks and open spaces. I welcome the instruction that has been given by senior gardaí to begin to challenge people driving scramblers and quad bikes in our communities. I am sure the Minister has seen on social media the countless videos that are put up on social media by young people themselves of them on scramblers and quad bikes on our streets. They are goading the guards. They are so brazen now that they driving right beside them. They goad them and knock on the windows of their cars. They are challenging the guards to chase them. The problem is that the Garda do not have the resources to be able to do that. It is something that must be challenged. We see them driving on one wheel, on the wrong side of the road, and with no helmet and no safety equipment.

While I welcome the introduction of the instruction, it is pointless without the front-line gardaí getting the appropriate training and equipment, including high-powered motorbikes to be able to challenge those people on the streets because they just cannot do it in the cars. It is impossible for them to do it. It is like giving the Garda responsibility for tackling drink and drug driving but not giving them the equipment to carry out the tests. We are asking them to challenge the people on quad bikes and scramblers but they do not have the equipment to do that.

I urge the Minister to collaborate with the Minister for Justice. They should sit down and figure out how we do this. I also urge him to go online and have a look at what they are doing in England because in England and Wales they have dedicated scrambler units in many towns and cities that are also affected by the same scourge of people driving recklessly on the roads. People are being killed every single year. Some residents are terrified of driving, cycling or walking around their community because of these activities. The Minister should have a chat with the Minister for Justice and urge him to please give the Garda the resources they need to tackle this problem.

Deputy Ciarán Ahern

I congratulate the Minister and the Minister of State on their new appointments. I look forward to working with them on these important issues.

I welcome the opportunity to make a statement on this very important issue. The Labour Party introduced a motion in the Dáil on this very topic in May last year. We did so in the context of a really concerning increase in the number of fatalities on our roads. Last year up to May, 73 people had been killed in road accidents and collisions, representing a 30% increase over the same period in the previous year. As has been mentioned previously, Ireland is an outlier in Europe because our road deaths increased between 2019 and 2023. There is no acceptable number of fatalities on our roads. Every single one of the deaths is a horrendous tragedy for family members, friends and communities, who will forever grieve the loss of their loved one in what in most cases was a preventable incident.

We also need to acknowledge that while road deaths may grab the headlines, many more people acquire life-changing injuries as a result of road collisions. Serious injuries to cyclists are actually increasing in Dublin. Very worryingly, the number of injured child cyclists recorded by hospitals is actually six times higher than on Garda records.

I acknowledge the positive initiatives taken on road safety in recent times. Speed kills – simple as. In recent days, we have seen the first tranche of reduced speed limits coming into effect under the new Road Safety Act. The Labour Party welcomes this. Now it is imperative that the reductions in urban areas and on national secondary roads come in on schedule later this year. Funding for signage should be made available for that immediately.

We know from evidence in Wales that when the Labour Party there introduced lower speed limits in built-up areas, there was a 30% drop in casualties of the roads. Therefore, I am optimistic. However, we cannot allow ourselves to think that simply lowering speed limits is a panacea, or that harsher penalties for infringements of those limits or other offences, like drunk driving or phone use, comprise a panacea. Ultimately, the determining factor in the success of any of these initiatives will be enforcement, and that means significant investment. We need to need to consider numbers in the Garda traffic corps, for example. Before the recession, the corps was approximately 1,300 strong. After the recession, there was a massive drop, to approximately 550. Despite many promises for a long time, Garda traffic corps numbers have been creeping up and down, between 600 and 750. Getting the number in the Garda traffic corps up has to be part of the solution.

However, significant investment in permanent, stationary traffic cameras is also needed. I was quite encouraged to see commitments to this in the programme for Government. This is an area where we could really see the benefits of automation. I ask the Minister to follow through on that and give it priority. We can talk all we like about penalty points and speed limits, which are obviously good and necessary measures, but what we are really talking about what will actually have an effect is behavioural change. People need to know that they will actually be punished for infringements of the rules of the road.

I want to echo briefly something my party colleague Deputy Conor Sheehan raised recently, namely sentencing guidelines when it comes to dangerous driving. Deputy Sheehan raised the issue in the context of a decision to allow the sentence of the person who killed Joe Drennan to run concurrently with another sentence for a separate issue. I was glad to see that, just yesterday, the DPP decided to appeal that sentence, but it should not have taken heroic activism from Joe's family, in the face of unimaginable grief, for that decision to be made. If we really want to deter people from

dangerous driving, we have to change the behaviour of the minority of road users who engage in it. That does mean harsher and stricter sentencing guidelines, as well as the potential lifetime loss of driving licence privileges for any driver found responsible for a fatal collision. I ask the Minister for Transport to work with the Minister for Justice to explore the scope of doing something on this.

Another key element, which featured heavily in our Labour motion last May, is road maintenance and the condition of many of our roads. This issue is inseparable from the climate crisis. Increased rainfall and more extreme weather events are shredding roads across the country, and it is only going to get worse if we do not ask act.

I hope, though, that the Minister acknowledges that continued investment in the maintenance and development of our cycling networks is also required. I pay tribute to my colleagues in Dublin Cycling Campaign, particularly the south Dublin group, on their terrific advocacy on this. When we talk about road safety, we are not just talking about people in cars but also about vulnerable road users, including cyclists and pedestrians. It was great to see the investment and increase in active travel infrastructure during the term of the previous Government, but it is still too often the case that cyclists are forced onto roads because of a lack of safe cycling infrastructure. We need to continue building and connecting our safe cycling network and invest properly in maintaining it. If we build it, they will come.

There are other, more technical but equally important areas where we could do better to increase road safety. Data sharing, as has been mentioned here today, is a huge issue. It is something my colleague Deputy Duncan Smith has raised on several occasions. The RSA really has to hand over the data to local authorities after a collision as soon as possible. Local authorities need to know where the black spots in their areas are so issues leading to crashes, with fatalities or injuries, can be dealt with before any further incidents occur. I am aware that the previous transport Minister was working on legislation in this regard and I was pleased with the Minister's comments undertaking to further this today.

I look forward to the publication of the implementation plan for the recommendations that arose out of the review of the RSA. I sincerely hope it deals with the shortcomings that have been so evident in that organisation. We cannot ignore the fact that, recently, more than 30 road safety advocacy groups declared no confidence in the RSA and stated it is not fit for purpose. There have been serious deficiencies and I welcome the fact that there will be a separation between the services functions and the wider road safety initiatives. There needs to be a culture shift in the RSA, though. The authority has often placed undue onus on vulnerable road users, urging them to protect themselves rather than actually making our roads and travel infrastructure safer and trying to change driver behaviour. There has been a victim-blaming attitude in the RSA whereby it offers people high-vis vests, meaning the speeding drivers distracted on their phones will not hit them. In health and safety risk management, it is imperative to eliminate or isolate a hazard in the first instance. PPE or high-vis clothing would only ever be proposed as a last resort. This approach needs to be adopted by the authority.

The new RSA needs to bring in more expertise in road design. We know the Government is gung ho for new roads, so it is crucial that the authority builds expertise in safe design principles and has an input into the design process for any new road development. It is also crucial that convenient, segregated and comfortable active travel routes be provided alongside any major new transport infrastructure, including metro and Luas lines. That is without mentioning the chronic backlog of driving tests and the RSA's silence in public debates about walking and cycling infrastructure. The RSA, in its new form, has to do more and better. I really hope the outcome of the review, be it two new agencies or some other configuration, brings about a better functioning road safety authority and safer roads for everyone.

I will conclude by giving credit where it is due, namely to the former Minister for Transport, Deputy Chambers, and the former Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Deputy Lawless, who in their previous briefs passed the Road Traffic Act and progressed the review of the RSA. It is vital that we now see the implementation plan published and expedited, and, crucially, that the new RSA, whatever shape it takes, be funded to properly carry out its mandate.

Deputy Eoghan Kenny

I thank my colleague Deputy Ahern for giving me a couple of minutes. I congratulate the two Ministers of State, namely Deputy Canney and my Cork colleague Deputy Buttimer, on their new roles.

I wish to raise the Mallow relief road, which the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer might be aware of. It is very important infrastructure. Since I was a young boy, the Mallow relief road has been talked about. It has been talked about for 20 years more and has been raised in this Chamber on a number of occasions. Transport Infrastructure Ireland will be giving its allocations in the next few weeks, I hope. I have a sincere request for the Minister. A sum of €100,000, a very measly amount, was received in 2023, and €300,000 was received in 2024. This was eventually topped up with moneys left over. Cork County Council has requested €800,000 to keep the momentum behind the project because it is to go to approval stage by March 2025, I hope. However, council officials have told me that unless the council receives the €800,000, the project will be stopped. That is just the way it is.

With regard to road safety, the main street of Mallow is like a car park. People are constantly parked there and it is backed up constantly. The Mallow relief road will be the project to solve the issue. In terms of economic, social and housing development, we need the Mallow relief road built. I ask the Ministers of State sincerely to liaise with the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, on the Mallow relief road and try to get this project over the line and built as soon as possible. It is for vital infrastructure.

The €6,000 per kilometre that Cork county received is a measly amount. It is one of the lowest in the country, even though the county has the most road infrastructure. I ask the Ministers of State to consider the amount we get per kilometre in the county.

Deputy James O'Connor

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this issue and congratulate the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, on his appointment. I had the privilege of serving for four years in the previous Dáil term as the Fianna Fáil spokesperson on transport, being a member of the Oireachtas committee on transport and getting an opportunity to see first-hand the operations and functions of that Department and the agencies that work under it. I take great pride in the work we did as a committee, and on the public accounts committee, as regards the Road Safety Authority. It is my view that the whole entity is defunct. We saw in press releases from the Department in quarter 3 of last year that much consideration is being given to stripping many of the organisation's key functions from what it does, whether it is driver testing or relates to the responsibility for the enormous fiasco of NCT testing and the responsibility it had with the company Applus+ for handing out a ten-year contract. It is hugely concerning, particularly given the fact that the agency itself got €95 million in taxpayers' money in one calendar year. It should be abolished. It does not do anything, in my eyes, to proactively improve road safety. The areas it was given responsibility to manage went completely out of control. It handed responsibility over to private entities and companies for what could very easily be done through a mixture of our excellent local authorities in terms of the offerings they could provide in this area, which was previously done.

There is also the area of driver testing and how we get people through the process of obtaining their full driving licence. I was a passionate believer before the recent general election and coming into it, and in writing the submission I wrote for the programme for Government, in reforming how we get a young person through the process of getting their licence. Secondary education is a huge opportunity for people to do their theory testing while they are in secondary school, whether in transition year or senior cycle. Leaving secondary education with a learner's permit is a very wise thing to do. We have seen this done in other countries, such as the Nordic countries, and regions of the world where it is included in secondary education. There is a great opportunity to teach people the rules of the road while they are young.

Every Deputy's constituency has been affected by terrible and sad road accidents in which young people have lost their lives. The statistics are very clear. People, particularly pedestrians and cyclists, are being killed by vehicles. Young drivers who are inexperienced are also being killed. That is why this is important. When we take a step back and look at it holistically, somebody in Ireland can drive a car - with an accompanying driver with a full licence, in fairness - without ever having done a driving lesson. It makes no sense. I have an agricultural background. People know I live on a farm. The tradition in agriculture is that many people go in straightaway at the age of 16, not 17, to get their learner's permit to enable them to drive tractors. It would be a very welcome and wise move for the Government to look at having a system in place whereby people have to do their lessons prior to being able to operate and drive a vehicle on a public road. It is just common sense, to borrow one of the great phases that was used throughout the recent general election.

I have found a few other things annoying. As a young person coming into the Dáil, you get a good insight into how the system works and how inefficient it can be sometimes. I was very passionate about needing to switch from the funding model we had whereby there was nearly a cat-and-mouse game every single year as regards roads funding. Ultimately, it was the taxpayers who lost. The Department of Transport was devolving responsibility for national roads transportation to a State agency and Transport Infrastructure Ireland, giving TII the responsibility to come up with a list of projects that the State needed to advance and that were included in both the national development plan and within TII's individual plans. The TII was then going back to the Department of Transport every calendar year to say, "This is what needs to be done and this is what we feel needs to be prioritised, what is included in the national development plan." The Department of Transport then had the duty to fund what was in those projects but it was not obtaining enough money to implement the plans of its own agency. It made no sense, and every year we were back here in the autumn screaming and shouting at one another on all sides of the House that this was not good enough and we needed to see funding for projects.

I heard Deputy Eoghan Kenny refer to the Mallow relief road, and he was right to do so. It was the same for the Carrigtwohill project. I could list them. About 44 projects, I think, were caught up in funding uncertainty last year alone. This should not be allowed to occur. I ask that the new Minister for Transport, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, carry out the commitment - it was one I sought and was included in the programme for Government - to put in place a multi-annual funding system between the Department of Transport, the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform and TII so we do not have this siege-of-Ennis-style approach to roads funding every year whereby we are in and out trying to figure out what is going on and it ends up in a big political row. The reason this would help is that it would give certainty to the contractors working on road projects. If they are able to plan for 12 months, 18 months, two years or three years, they can do these projects much faster, they are cheaper to do, it gives them the ability to retain crews they may have hired to work on specific road projects and, overall, it would improve delivery and value for the taxpayer, which have to be very important characteristics of the work that needs to be done for this Government.

Looking at a few other items that have to be prioritised in the next few years, the development of the Cork-Limerick motorway has to progress. The current system results in many people in Cork choosing not to fly out of Cork Airport but to go to Dublin Airport, particularly for transatlantic flights and other reasons. They will not go to Shannon Airport because of the extremely poor road infrastructure between the cities of Cork and Limerick. We have to try to address this. It is one of the most dangerous roads in the country without question, particularly the sections around Buttevant and Charleville. We have seen a lot of very serious and fatal accidents, unfortunately, on the Mallow Road as well. I would like us to see this project finally being moved ahead and put to bed. It is one of the key pieces of infrastructure that the State will develop.

It would be wrong of me not to admit there are points in the new programme for Government that I might not be 100% happy with. We had an opportunity in the area of infrastructure development to pull aside the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform and tell it that it is responsible for holding up much of the development. We should improve on the efficiencies we have developed as regards capital infrastructure for the Government, particularly in the area of road transportation and road safety, which we are here to discuss. That has to be looked at further, perhaps with a task force within the Department of the Taoiseach to ask what we are doing wrong, how can we improve and why are we allowing projects to be delayed by five, ten or 15 years. I could refer to MetroLink or connecting Dublin Airport to our country's rail network. In Cork there are many examples such as the development of new public transport links in the city. This is worthy of attention. It is not something we often discuss.

There is another thing I would like to see happen over the current Dáil term. Deputy Carthy is here, and it is good to see Sinn Féin represented as the lead Opposition party. An all-party committee on the national development plan could be something for TDs who are interested in infrastructure. The Social Democrats, the Labour Party and Sinn Féin are represented here, along with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, my party, as are the Independents who have Deputy Mattie McGrath in the Chair. We should look at whether we could have an Oireachtas joint committee on the national development plan, a forum to discuss these capital projects in a way that is conducive to their development. Too much of the discussion here is siloed into particular Government Departments and responsibility is being passed around. Earlier, after Leaders' Questions, I said that when everybody is responsible, nobody is, unfortunately. I would like to see that progressed.

Above all else, there are very practical things we can do to improve road safety. My view on the RSA, having worked on it for the past few years, is that it is utterly defunct. It should be disbanded. I would much rather see that allocation, close to €100 million, go to An Garda Síochána and its roads policing unit and traffic corps and to reforming the system to get people who do not have a learner's permit or licence onto the roads in a safer, more practical manner. We should have them do their driving lessons before they can get behind the wheel of a car on a public road. The system should be changed.

Deputy Matt Carthy

I was taken aback for a moment when the Minister for Transport indicated that the new speed limits were broadly welcomed. It reinforced for me the fact that he is a Minister from Dublin and is not really in touch with many people from rural communities.

In my constituency the overwhelming response has been one of bewilderment. It is not that people are opposed to the reduction in the speed limits per se, but many people have pointed to roads that are in an absolutely atrocious state due to potholes. Despite this, the local authority is not out fixing the roads and improving road conditions but putting up new signage. Everybody knows the two key areas to improve road safety are enforcement and road conditions. Unfortunately, the previous Government, due to a lack of any type of vision or ambition, was unwilling to do anything in respect of either enforcement or road conditions, so it came up with this arbitrary change to speed limits across the board.

That points to a particular problem the Government has. Right across counties Monaghan and Cavan, for example, many local roads that are in an atrocious condition, but there are also major road projects that are included in development plans and in key strategic policies of the Government that were essentially put on hold for the past five years. I am referring especially to the N2 road that goes through County Monaghan to link with the A5 in the North to improve connectivity to the north west. Despite the fact the Government has committed, quite rightly, to financially supporting the A5 project, it has essentially cost taxpayers substantial amounts of money by stalling the N2 road project, which is comprised of the Clontibret to the Border road scheme and the Ardee to Castleblayney road scheme. Both are pivotal to improving road safety and that point is acknowledged by the Government. However, the Government, as I said, stalled it. We know that because TII told us the reason the scheme was stalled was due to limited funding being available. In one freedom of information response I received TII referred to the project as suspended due to funding constraints.

The problem the Government has is that for the past five years, it had Eamon Ryan as a mudguard. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been able to say the reason local roads have been in such a bad state and that key national infrastructural roads have been stalled was Eamon Ryan and the Green Party. Eamon Ryan and the Green Party got their answer from the electorate but now Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have nowhere else to hide. I hope, therefore, that in his closing remarks the Minister of State will indicate that there will be a substantial increase in funding for local road networks and for major projects such as the N2 and that the money will be made available quickly so we can do something meaningful to address road safety.

Deputy Jennifer Whitmore

Our current approach to road planning prioritises the supremacy of cars over the safety of pedestrians. It is time to turn this approach on its head. It is no secret that Irish roads were and still are designed with cars in mind, often at the expense of pedestrian safety. In the first seven months of last year, there were 113 road fatalities nationwide and a third of those victims were under the age of 26 years. I mention the number of hit-and-run incidents we are seeing, which I understand accounted for 10% of serious crashes in the last two months. I think of the families of Joe Drennan and Shane O’Farrell, who are still fighting for justice for their family members. This is an area we need to focus on. There seem to be more hit-and-run incidents than I can ever remember hearing reported. I would appreciate the Minister of State looking into the matter in detail.

I welcome the new speed limits introduced last week but speed limits alone are not enough. We need proper enforcement with sufficient Garda numbers and well-maintained infrastructure to ensure safety on our roads. One of the major challenges we face is the lack of adequate funding for councils to implement necessary safety measures. Simple measures like road markings and traffic lights can take years to introduce because councils are waiting on specific funding streams. This delay puts lives at risk and undermines any efforts to create safer roads. If councils had access to more funding for road infrastructure, they could proactively address safety concerns rather than reactively respond to incidents.

I will highlight a specific area of my constituency, namely, the town of Glenealy where there is speeding of often dangerous levels on the main street right beside a primary school. There is a lack of road markings, ramps and pedestrian crossings, all of which exacerbate the problem. This puts residents and visitors at risk. Wicklow County Council says it does not have the money to upgrade these roads so we can see clearly how the gap between the safety needs of a community and the funding provided to the councils is causing many difficulties and safety concerns in communities across the country.

I wish to focus on the issue of getting our children safely to school. Surely the most basic thing we should be providing is a safe route for children to walk to school. That is not the case, however. In my county we have a lot of narrow roads, uneven surfacing and potholes. We are heavily dependent on cars and many of our schools are on rural roads that do not even have footpaths. I welcomed the Safe Routes to School initiative launched in 2021, but the speed of the roll-out of these programmes is far too slow. In 2021, three schools in Wicklow were part of phase 1 of the initiative. They were only connected in 2024. Considering those projects really consisted of putting up bollards, changing the colours of the road markings and putting up signage, it seems a very long delay for a simple project that is so important for the safety of our children. We have over 100 schools in Wicklow, so at that rate it will take many decades to connect them all through the Safe Routes to School programme. That is something we need to focus on. As has been mentioned, there is a bureaucratic gap or barriers in place in that schools must apply to be part of the programme and then be assessed, following which the application goes to the council. There are so many different steps involved when it is often very apparent to the council engineers what the problems are and which schools and routes need to be made safer. Having those bureaucratic steps is just adding long timeframes to these especially crucial projects that are needed in a far more timely manner.

We need to redirect our approach to road safety by prioritising pedestrians and ensuring the safety of all road users. This requires adequate funding, effective enforcement of speed laws and a commitment to creating safe pathways for children. The year-on-year increase in road fatalities is a stark reminder of the work that needs to be done. If our roads are safe for our children, they are safe for everyone. I would like the Minister of State to keep that in mind.

Deputy Aidan Farrelly

I am thankful for the opportunity to speak about such an important issue. We have some opportunities to influence significant change in driver culture on Irish roads. The engineering solutions available to make roads safer will only go so far. While we need to see a significant modal shift away from car dependency to public transport, in lieu of a service that is universally efficient and reliable the reliance on cars will continue to prevail.

I believe in formal, informal and non-formal education. When it comes to an issue like driver competency and behaviour we could be doing much more to educate would-be drivers and road users in general in a variety of ways. If we want to be pre-emptive rather than reactive in our policy, we need to ensure people have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the issue. Youth work organisations around Ireland support young people to do their driver theory test, but they would not be resourced nearly enough to facilitate lessons or a more thorough educative process. We are aware of the great work being done in schools, but if we are committed to becoming drivers on Irish roads, is there an argument to suggest we should learn from the perspectives of cyclists and pedestrians to ensure we experience those issues before we are granted licences at all? I raise that as an example of some of the many opportunities we have in relation to policy over the next couple of years.

Turning to local issues and given engineering solutions will only get us so far, there is a stretch of road in Kildare from Clane to Carbury that is 16 km in length. It is probably the straightest stretch of road of that length in the country. It is straight for the entire 16 km. It takes one through Clane, Prosperous, Allenwood and Derrinturn. All are towns with a significant pedestrian population as well as schools and playgrounds. The road also forms part of the haul routes for the Bord na Móna recycling facility. The council has progressed detailed designs of junctions such as those at Dag Welds and Firmount Cross.

I would appreciate it if the Minister of State could speak to Kildare County Council about funding for those.

Deputy Liam Quaide

When I was canvassing for the local and general elections last year, the need for measures to combat speeding in residential areas was one of the most pressing issues for constituents. In the local elections, it was probably one of the top three issues. Speed measures are essential for safety and quality of life. They provide a backdrop of calm in residential areas and give peace of mind to parents in particular in order that they do not have to be in a constant state of vigilance and threat when their children are playing outside. Speed ramps are often the only effective means of slowing down traffic, but they are like hen's teeth when it comes to getting them in my constituency. Despite this need, when it comes to advocating for these communities, it is generally a long struggle, sometimes over several years, to get a particular project onto the road safety programme. Those in many communities are left perplexed that they are enduring chronic safety hazards and noise pollution outside their front doors, with no end in sight.

I am thinking of one striking example of a group of residents on the Killeagh Road in the village of Mogeely. They have been so frustrated and concerned about road safety that some families were willing to consider diverting moneys from a playground upgrade fund for the village in order to prioritise traffic-calming measures. These are parents with young children. They should not have to be considering these kinds of trade-offs. At present, Cork County Council is not being granted sufficient funding by central government for these measures. As a result, many people are living with dangerous road conditions outside their homes. they are fearful for their children's safety and are obliged to endure constant noise pollution. I urge the Minister of State to provide much-increased funding for road safety measures, particularly speed ramps, to make our residential areas safer, quieter and more peaceful places to live.

Deputy Jen Cummins

I congratulate the Minister of State on his appointment. Road safety is a major issue for communities in Dublin South-Central. The Calm Crumlin Road group has been campaigning and collecting data for a number of years. I wish to outline some of those data for the House. There is a straight stretch of road where there is a primary school, a secondary school and two sports clubs, one for football and one for camogie and hurling. Forty per cent of the population do not have cars and rely on public transport and active travel. This is a 50 km/h zone. The group calculated that of the 800 cyclists, 6,500 cars and 2,500 large vehicles using the road each day, 10% of the cars are speeding. Since it started collecting those data, 1 million vehicles have been travelling at more than 50km/h. There has been one death and numerous near misses. The community welcomes the reduction of speed limits on rural roads and looks forward very much to having the reduced speed on city roads as well.

An Cathaoirleach Gníomhach (Deputy Mattie McGrath)

Bogfaidh muid ar ais go dtí an Rialtas leis na Teachtaí Barry Ward agus Peter 'Chap' Cleere.

Deputy Barry Ward

As everyone in this Chamber knows, one death on the road is one family, one community and one group of friends devastated by the loss of the person involved. Every death is something we need to take seriously and take steps to address. As we work towards reducing road deaths to zero, we do so in the context that they have actually increased in recent times. That is unacceptable and difficult to explain, even though there have been attempts to explain it. The reality is that in each instance, there is someone who did not accept responsibility for the role they had to play on the roads in terms of ensuring the safety of other road users.

When we debate road safety, I think of a road death that happened within the past 12 months literally around the corner from where I live, at the corner of Glenageary Road in Mounttown and Kill Avenue. Greta Price-Martin, who was 22 years of age and a student of film at Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, was killed there last April. She was cycling on her way to work at an incredibly busy junction where five roads meet. She went straight on and a lorry that was outside her turned left and she was caught under it. Her death was unspeakably tragic. I met her parents at the scene at a vigil afterwards. She was from Louth originally but her parents, Breffni Martin and Vanessa Price, were there. It is incredibly difficult for any of us to understand the grief they must have felt when their daughter was far from home. This, however, is just one instance in my area of hundreds around the country where people suffered similar grief. Anything we can do to stop that is something we must do. We must take responsibility.

The answer is not to simply say that we are reducing speed limits on small roads nationally. I have heard other speakers indicate that this all comes down to enforcement. The only time people are actually going to take speed and behaviour on the roads seriously is when they think someone is going to catch them doing it and penalise them. This can be seen on major national routes and motorways or on small country roads and small housing estates in urban areas. Wherever the setting, if people think they will get away it, they will take the chance. Every time it happens and someone dies as a result of it, we hear of the tragedy but what we do not hear is the requirement for personal responsibility. While I do not necessarily oppose it, one of the difficulties I have with saying all speed limits are going to be reduced from 80 km/h to 60km/h or from 50km/h to 30 km/h is that it abdicates individual motorists from the responsibility for taking action about their behaviour and for taking responsibility for the people around them, such as the vulnerable road users, pedestrians, cyclists and older people. All of that must be taken on board as an individual responsibility by motorists, motorcyclists and cyclists.

In my area, the increase in the number of cyclists on the road has improved awareness of vulnerable road users. I welcome the fact that bike share schemes and more individuals taking to bicycles onto roads throughout the capital and in Dún Laoghaire have made motorists more people aware of their presence. That has got to be a good thing. At the same time, however, while I praise Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council for the work it has done in improving cycling infrastructure, it is far from adequate and far from finished. The junction to which I referred earlier in respect of Greta Price-Martin is one where it put bollards in place instead of a segregated cycling lane. Those bollards have to be routinely replaced because lorries and large vehicles knock them down. The use of bollards is not working. Until we have that adequate cycling infrastructure in place, cyclists cannot and will not feel safe. For example, I cycle along the Rock Road in Blackrock into town. There is a bus lane that has to be shared with cyclists. It is intimidating if you are on a bicycle and you have a double-decker bus bearing down behind you because, obviously, I am not the fastest cyclist in the country. It is very intimidating sharing a relatively limited space with an enormous and dangerous vehicle. We need to be putting in place proper segregated cycle lanes rather than advisory cycle lanes or ones with those bendy bollards that can be knocked over by cars. We need cycle lanes that provide a separate space for cyclists in order that they can be safe and separate from traffic. For example, when transferring from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council into Dublin City Council, there is a complete lack of continuity in the infrastructure, particularly for cyclists. That is true on the Rock Road, Merrion Road and on the N11 where the cycle lane immediately deteriorates where Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council's area of responsibility ends and one enters Dublin city. These are just a few individual examples.

What we have on a nationwide basis is a problem with addressing the fact that people need to be protected, particularly vulnerable road users. We need to ensure that the engineering and the infrastructure is there and, beyond all of that, that we have the enforcement. We need to send out the message that if people are going to break the road traffic laws, there will be consequences for them and that An Garda Síochána will be there and they will be caught and there will be a punishment for them. Only then will misbehaviour stop and lives be saved.

Deputy Peter 'Chap' Cleere

I welcome the opportunity to address the House on road safety. Ireland has made significant progress over the lifetime of previous road safety strategies. Since the launch of the first strategy in 1998, road deaths have declined by 70%, but we must not give up the hard work. There is no time for complacency. I welcome this Government's focus, energy and commitment to road safety.

Previous speakers have said, and I totally concur, that every citizen in this country is entitled to feel safe on our roads. We all must play our part collectively in that. In 2024, there were 175 deaths on our roads. That is 175 families destroyed. Sadly, 16 people have lost their lives on our roads this year. It is so devastating for the families and communities in which this happens. It was mentioned previously about enforcement and road conditions as being the two biggest drivers. The four main causes of death on our roads, however, are speeding, distracted road use, not wearing a seat belt and intoxicated driving. While all the measures are there, the number one common denominator in all of this is personal responsibility. That is key to helping road safety throughout the country.

My constituency of Carlow-Kilkenny is mostly rural, with 80% of people living in rural areas and 20% in urban areas. It is essential all communities are kept safe on our roads. I am thinking of rural towns and villages like Windgap, Kells, Stoneyford, Dunnamaggin, Hugginstown, Ballinkillen, Myshall, Glynn and St. Mullin's. All of these towns and villages need to be made safe. What is crucial in helping to keep our roads safe is that we need significant increased investment in our road network to ensure the safety of our citizens.

The road projects will be announced shortly and I welcome the significant increase in road investment, which will help local authorities around the country. A significant upgrade in pedestrian and cycling infrastructure on roads through active travel schemes is needed throughout the country. We need to protect vulnerable road users.

One measure that has been really beneficial, which I have seen it in my own village of Graiguenamanagh, is the safe routes to school programme. We need to see greater urgency and investment in safe routes to school because we have to keep our children safe. It has had a massively positive impact in Graiguenamanagh and I would welcome many more towns and villages around the country and my constituency benefiting from it as well. The low cost safety scheme has worked well in rural Ireland, including in my constituency of Carlow-Kilkenny. This scheme makes a phenomenal difference, especially in places around the country that might not be as busy in terms of road user numbers but have black spots. We need to see a significant investment in low cost safety schemes. Local authorities are best placed to identify these schemes need to be carried out but we need more schemes every year because they make a difference. We are going to have an additional 5,000 gardaí coming on board and that increased visibility in terms of resources under road policy is really important. While personal responsibility is very important, enforcement has to be undertaken to back it up as well.

The new speed limits were mentioned earlier. We all have a responsibility as road users to drive at a safe speed. Depending on factors such as traffic and weather, that could be well below the maximum permitted speed limit on a road. Between 2020 and 2024, three in every four road deaths occurred on a rural road. What is really important here is that while national default speed limits are set in law, every local authority has the final say on speed limits on each individual road in its area, thus they may leave these limits either at the default or apply other speed limits via special speed limit bylaws. It is very important to acknowledge and recognise that.

Three key projects in my constituency, both from an infrastructural perspective and from a safety perspective, need particular attention. One is the Kilkenny northern ring road. It is a particular piece of infrastructure that will benefit the city of Kilkenny as well as all its users. It will make it safer for pedestrians, cyclists and road users alike. There is also the N25, which has been stalled and needs to be reignited and funded. The N24 again needs funding for the final stage to be completed and to get the bypass in Mooncoin finished as well as all those roads made safer.

A lot of work has been done around road safety but there is an awful lot more work to do and we need to do it together.

An Ceann Comhairle

I call Deputy Cullinane from Sinn Féin.

Deputy David Cullinane

Is it three minutes, a Cheann Comhairle?

An Ceann Comhairle

It is.

Deputy David Cullinane

I thank the Ceann Comhairle. Personal responsibility is important when it comes to road safety but it is important for us as Oireachtas Members to feed back local projects we are being lobbied on by constituents, officials from local authorities and campaign groups who believe that investments are necessary in road safety improvements.

I want to pick up on one of the issues mentioned by Deputy Cleere which is the N24 Waterford to Cahir bypass. We have all been lobbied very heavily, and rightly so, by the chief executives of the local authorities in counties Waterford, Kilkenny and Tipperary. Phase 2 of that project, as I understand it, has been funded but funding is also necessary for phases 3 and 4. This will allow for design, the statutory process and to commence the environmental impact assessments. All that needs to be done. If phases 3 and 4 are not funded, that will stall the project and will call into question whether it will even be done in the lifetime of this Government. Everybody accepts that road improvements and projects of that scale take time but we have to get through all the various processes. Can the Minister of State ensure the requests of the local authorities involved and the Oireachtas Members in the south east regarding the N24 road? The N25, Waterford to Cork road, is also important and needs to be improved. These are two important projects for the south east and for Waterford.

I also want to raise another issue regarding Ballymacarbry, County Waterford. It is really important that we give respect to people in communities who come together to set up action groups in the best interest of the people who live there. I pay tribute to the committee of the Ballymacarbry road action group, which was established on the foot of a meeting last October. There were real road safety issues in Ballymacarbry village, in particular a need for traffic calming measures to be implemented at Ballymacarbry National School. The group has since engaged with Waterford City and County Council. My understanding is that it is making an application for traffic calming measures on the R671 to the Minister of State's Department. I ask that this would be treated favourably. It is an important issue for the parents and young pupils attending that school. As others have pointed out, these are local examples of what we can do as legislators or what Departments can do to improve road safety. I ask the Minister of State to relay my comments on those projects back to the senior Minister.

An Ceann Comhairle

I thank Deputy Cullinane. We move now to the Independent and Parties Group. Deputies Murphy and Stanley have four and half minutes each.

Deputy Paul Murphy

I welcome the recent reduction in speed limits on local rural roads. I also welcome the forthcoming reduction in speed limits on urban roads from 50 km/h to 20 km/h. The facts are absolutely undeniable that speed kills and reducing speed even by a small amount saves limbs and lives.

Research published by the Department of Transport shows there is "an extremely strong and fundamental relationship between speed and injuries." When speed limits were reduced to 30 km'h in Bristol in 2019, fatal injuries fell by 63%. Minor and serious injuries also fell. The same has been happening in Wales where speed limits were reduced by 20 mph or 30 mph. As a result, 100 fewer people were killed or seriously injured over the past year. Lower speed limits are a no-brainer when it comes to road safety. Anybody who says otherwise or lobbies or argues otherwise is suffering from a serious case of car brain.

Another major factor in the increase of casualties on our roads is the trend towards outsized SUVs and pick-up trucks. Only this week we heard of an awful death, the killing of eight-year old André Castro Ladeiro by a man driving a Ford Ranger Wildtrak SUV pick-up truck. André was crossing the road after waiting for the green man at a zebra crossing. In his victim impact statement, André's father, Cesar, said:

The bang and him disappearing. I saw it then and every day since. No braking lights on that Ford Ranger Wildtrak. André was just a leaf in the road for that driver.

Andre's mother said:

There are countless days when I feel lost and I just want to feel close to him. Living this terrible trauma is also André's brother who witnessed everything at only five-years old. The impact on his life is unspeakable.

In sentencing André's killer, the judge said:

People who drive these vehicles in urban areas where there are a lot of houses have an increased burden of care. It is not the same as driving a car.

It certainly is not. Children are eight times more likely to be killed when hit by an SUV or a passenger truck than by a car, yet the car industry keeps selling, advertising and pushing them. Every 300 kg increase in vehicle weight increases the risk of fatal injury by 30% for vulnerable road users. The risk of fatal injuries also increases with bonnet height. SUVs and pick-up trucks are also far more likely to hit people, particularly children, in the first place because they have a much larger blind spot. Despite this, the car industry continues to promote these lethal weapons because they are more profitable to produce than regular cars. The result is more than half of all new cars sold now are SUVs. They have become the second biggest driver of climate change globally over the past decade. It is time to call a halt.

Last year, I introduced a Bill to ban the advertising of fossil fuels and fossil fuel vehicles, which would go a long way towards reducing the demand for SUVs. The evidence in road safety shows that electrified SUVs are just as dangerous as fossil-fuelled ones. We need to go further. We need a ban on large SUVs from urban areas. Nobody should be driving around in a glorified truck unless they are a truck with a HGV licence or there is a particular recognised societal need for it. I will introduce a Private Member's Bill to do that shortly.

I have also raised the need for appropriate funding for schools seeking a school traffic warden. It is a terrible situation when schools and parents have to campaign for school traffic wardens. I will give the example of Riverview Educate Together National School in my constituency. I will quote from a mother who speaks about her daughter being in junior infants and a keen cyclist. She said:

I’m grateful for the cycle lanes from Perrystown Community Centre to Limekiln Lane which makes me feel safer. The junction from Mountdown Park on to Limekiln Road feels extremely dangerous and I insist that my five year old avoids it. A school warden would help us to feel a lot safer at this busy junction.

South Dublin County Council needs to review and revisit this decision.

Deputy Brian Stanley

New speed limits were introduced on 7 February. We all hope this will be a significant step in the right direction, particularly in introducing improvements in road safety and, most important, reducing road fatalities and serious injuries, most of which can be life-changing. All one has to do is take a look at the number of people being sent to the National Rehabilitation Centre in Dún Laoghaire following significant injuries.

As part of the broader initiative, it is hoped that this change will make an impact, particularly on rural roads. Many drivers are travelling at speeds way over the limit on small rural roads. Anybody who canvassed in rural areas last year will have seen the speed at which people travel. Speed limit signage will be changed or replaced with new speed limits but I am not that confident they will do the job that is needed. Will the change of the rural speed sign from five stripes to a smaller number work? Even more worryingly, are people even aware of what the signs mean? I have asked several qualified drivers but they do not have a clue, so this is a significant issue. Would it not be better to just put numbers on them such as 50, 60, 70 or 80 km? Would that not make more sense? Who was the genius who came up with the stripes? It is a bad idea that lacks effectiveness.

Signs are useless without enforcement. There need to be random Garda checks. They do not have to be there all day because word gets around on Facebook fairly quickly. There needs to be spot checks for 20 minutes or half an hour in different rural locations. The Government needs to get it across to the Garda Commissioner that this needs to happen so that gardaí are able to carry out random checks on rural roads and we have enough gardaí to do it.

In 2024, 174 people lost their lives on Irish roads, with 69% of these fatalities occurring on the roads we are talking about, so there is a particular need for radical change in how we address the situation on rural roads. The use of mobile phones is completely out of control. I have been raising this issue for 14 years. Drink and drug statistics are showing a rise again, unfortunately. Garda presence is also an issue. An Garda Síochána is taking some welcome initiatives, including using HGV vehicles for surveillance where gardaí can see into cars and see whether people are on Facebook or checking out somebody who is at the hairdressers or the races instead of driving the car. These issues must be addressed. Education is important as well. Some of this should be done in transition year.

Joe Drennan, a young man who came from the town of Camross near Mountrath, was mowed down at a bus stop in Limerick on 13 October 2023. As things stand, the driver of that car will serve no time in prison for it. There has been a major campaign over the past few weeks since the judge handed down the sentence. Thankfully, that has changed. The Director of Public Prosecutions has been lobbied intensely on it. There was a large protest march in Mountrath last Sunday and another one is planned for Camross this coming Sunday. The DPP is now going to appeal the decision, which is welcome. Hopefully, it will be successful but we need to change the nonsense of concurrent sentences as opposed to consecutive sentences. There cannot be a complete overlap. That is the problem here. This was somebody who was facing firearms charges and had 46 previous convictions. He mowed down a young chap coming home from work standing at a bus stop but will not have to serve an extra hour in prison for it. I am appealing to the Minister of State, who is a new Minister, to take this on board, speak to his colleagues in Government about it and put a proper framework for sentencing in place. It is key. Marguerite and Tim Drennan, who are the parents of this young man, are looking for that. I am begging the Minister of State to do this, as are other people around the country. We need to change that.

An Ceann Comhairle

I need to caution the Deputy that where there are criminal proceedings, we must be very careful not to jeopardise them.

Deputy Aindrias Moynihan

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCeann Comhairle. Ar an gcéad dul síos ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil le gach éinne a chabhraigh liom le linn an feachtas toghacháin ag deireadh na bliana as ucht na slite a bhíodar páirteach ann, idir mo chairde agus mo theaghlach ach go háirithe. Míle buíochas leo. Is mór an onóir a bheith anseo mar Theachta thar ceann mhuintir Chorcaigh thiar thuaidh. I thank the voters of Cork North-West for supporting me in the recent election. I have the huge honour and privilege of being sent here on their behalf and I want to raise their issues regarding road safety. I also thank the members of my campaign team, whether they were putting up posters or were drivers or back office staff. In particular, I thank my family for their significant work and for putting up with me during that time. I wish to give a quick shout-out to the Clann Droichead girls as we had agreed on polling day in Macroom. Comhgháirdeas leis an Aire as a ról nua agus a bheith ainmnithe. I congratulate the Minister of State.

I will focus on a number of road safety issues of particular concern to my constituents in Cork North-West. The Cork to Limerick road is one issue. The N20 is dangerous and there is a need to advance a safer route between those two population centres. The loss of life and injury on the existing road need to be tackled and a new, safer option made available.

The N22 is a significant issue for us from a safety point of view. Great progress has been made on the western side of it, with a bypass built for Ballyvourney and Macroom. It has made the road much safer. To the east of that is the section between Macroom and Ballincollig. Over 30,000 vehicles use that eastern section each day and it is becoming more and more difficult for drivers. There are multiple right-turning junctions, many of which do not even have the protection of traffic islands, and they are making it very difficult for locals. While it is a national road delivering traffic from Tralee to Cork, for so many communities, it is also a local road. People in Canovee, Kilmurry, Crookstown, Cloughduv, Aherla, Farran, Dripsey, Coachford and Ovens are crisscrossing this road multiple times a day and for many of them, it is very dangerous. Those right-turning junctions need to be addressed. There is a significant flow of traffic coming up on to it from west Cork on the R585. For them to be able to safely access the N22, there is a need for safer access at Castlemore. I understand the Minister, the Minister of State and the Department are doing a lot of work to advance funding to make that junction safer.

I do not think anybody could dispute that lower speeds would lead to safer roads but one size does not fit all. There are so many sections of road where the speed limits are inappropriate. Regarding the new roll-out, I understand that there will be a follow-up with the local authorities changing speed limits but that really needs to come on much more quickly so that people can travel at a safe speed and speed and speed limits would not come into disrepute. Long sections of the road I mentioned - the R585 - could well take traffic at more than the 60 km/h limit that would be recommended for it.

That needs to be addressed. That there would be a one-size-fits-all approach is a cause of concern for many people.

The condition of the roads is a massive contributing factor to road safety. Councils need to make sure that potholes are repaired and road surfaces are appropriate. Hedge cutting is also important so that pedestrians can stand in safely and there is good visibility for all road users. There are many other aspects to the issue that I want to put forward but I will catch up with the Minister of State another time.

Deputy Ryan O'Meara

I welcome the opportunity to speak on road safety matters. Every one of us has a responsibility for safety on the roads, including our road users and pedestrians, and us, as policymakers. There is an onus on us to enact the right policies. In 2024, there were 175 road deaths in the country. The European Transport Safety Council published findings in June 2024 that found that 20 of 32 countries reduced the numbers of deaths on their roads in 2023 but in Ireland, our rate of road deaths rose by 32%.

I was on local radio this morning and briefly mentioned that I was going to be making a statement on road safety. I did not go into what I was going to say but mentioned that there would be a discussion in the Chamber. Following that, I got a phone call from a local woman who had lost her 16-year-old son to a road traffic accident a number of years ago. It was quite a profound conversation to have with someone. We in this Chamber are in privileged positions where people come to us with such stories and share the struggles they have had in life. It impacted me when that was shared with me and I was trusted in that way. The woman thanked me for speaking up and letting people know that the Deputies in this House are willing to have the conversation. Some of the speed limits on local roads have changed from 80 km/h to 60 km/h and while some people are probably unhappy, we must remember that there is a massive duty on us in this House to ensure that no other families go through what that woman went through and ensure they do not suffer a loss like that.

I somewhat question the communication of the changes to the speed limits. There has been a lot of confusion. I know our local authorities have done their best, but many people who made representations to me in recent weeks believed that every road with an 80 km/h speed limit would go down to 60 km/h when the limits for regional roads have not changed yet. I have also been questioning our local authority about the future plans for roads that have not yet seen their speed limits changed. Many of the answers that are coming back are that the local authority is still awaiting guidance, which needs to come as quickly as possible. As much as I am questioning them, I know my colleagues on Tipperary County Council are doing a lot of questioning as well, and the roads section can only tell them so much. We need to be able to inform our constituents.

In respect of future changes, there are two issues I have already raised with the local authority and wish to raise here. The first relates to the existing regional network. We have many regional roads in the very large county of Tipperary. It is my view that the speed limit on the vast majority of those roads should remain 80 km/h. I believe the network and the style of the roads suit such a limit. The second issue relates to the county's two old national routes, the old N7, which is now the R445, and the old N8, which is now the R639. They are some of the widest roads in the country. The previous speaker mentioned road conditions and the conditions of the roads I have mentioned suit 100 km/h driving. I am not saying that the limit is a target, but the suggestion that a road in such good condition, and which is wide and straight, would require a reduced limit of 80 km/h will frustrate drivers. Road conditions dictate the speed at which we should be able to drive and changing the speed limit across the network is a blunt instrument. If local authorities are to have some leeway, they need direction straight away. In saying all of that, I fully recognise the fact that slower speeds on roads and drivers taking more care will, we hope, reduce the number of serious accidents on our roads. That is what we all want.

In respect of road funding, there are two particular projects I would like to raise. The first is the Thurles inner relief road. This project has been going on for years and there has been a lot of talk about it. The land has now been acquired and the route has been chosen. We now need the funding. We need the project to move to the next step. It is a safety issue. Every piece of traffic coming into Thurles has to pass through the town. There have been serious incidents and deaths in the middle of the town, particularly with the number of heavy goods vehicles, HGVs, driving through it. We need to see progress.

We also need to see progress on the Latteragh realignment. Clearance works were done approximately a year ago but no work has started yet. It is the key road linking Thurles and Nenagh. We need those improvement works to start because they are wanted by my constituents.

There are major differences in the road traffic measures taken by different local authorities. That is particularly true of the installation of traffic calming and speed bumps. It is frustrating that we in Tipperary find it so hard to get speed bumps when other counties seem to be able to do it so easily. Ballygraigue in Nenagh and the village of Cloughjordan are two areas in particular that I highlight as needing that infrastructure. We need a streamlining of policy in that regard.

Deputy Conor D. McGuinness

When we speak about road safety, speed is one of the key talking points. Undoubtedly, one of the major causes of accidents on our roads is people driving too fast. However, we cannot ignore the impact on road safety of the quality and standard of our roads. In my constituency of County Waterford, I see it all too often. A major contributing factor to accidents, including very serious accidents, is the condition of the road. There are stretches of road where there adjustments to junctions are needed. Dangerous bends need to be taken out of roads. There are places where the road surface leaves a lot to be desired. I was a county councillor for many years before being elected to this House and I know that there are areas where the potholes and the surface of the roads force the traffic into dangerous predicaments. We need to address that issue.

I was disappointed by the lack of priority given in the programme for Government to a number of roads that need investment and require action to be taken. I am thinking of the N25, which stretches from Rosslare to Cork and forms the backbone of County Waterford's road transport infrastructure. It is a hugely busy road that a number of years ago was named by The Irish Times as the most dangerous stretch of national road in the State. There are accidents on the road every single week and there was a fatal collision last year. People are injured and damage is caused. I implore the Minister of State and his colleagues in the Government to ensure that when the national development plan, NDP, is reviewed, hopefully later this year, the N25 is restored as a priority. It should never have come off that list in the first place. We need that investment.

We also need investment in the N24, which links Waterford to Limerick. That road is quite poor in patches, which is an impact on safety. Someone driving from my town of Dungarvan to Limerick has to take the R671, which is the main road between Dungarvan and Clonmel. The road carries traffic of an agricultural nature, heavy goods vehicles and commuter traffic. There are big pharmaceutical employers in both Dungarvan and Clonmel, which provide considerable employment. There are a lot of journeys on this stretch of road. The R671 needs urgent intervention. I am thinking in particular of Ballymacarbry, which my colleague, Deputy Cullinane, mentioned earlier. We need safety improvements at the national school in Ballymacarbry on the R671.

Deputy Michael Collins

I have often raised the issue of speed limits this week. I was on two radio programmes this morning explaining the situation and the crisis we in west Cork find ourselves in. There are so many roads, including local roads, and we did not have an issue. There will always be someone complaining. We accept that many of the speed limits had to move from 80 km/h to 60 km/h. I sympathise with anybody who has been involved in a traffic accident and anyone who has suffered injury or death as a result of traffic accidents. For many regional roads, the speed limit should be reduced from 100 km/h to 80 km/h. There is no problem with that. The R585, the R586 and the N71, however, are the main thoroughfares into west Cork. We cannot accept a blanket drop in speed limits. Thankfully, there are not many serious or fatal accidents on the roads. There are sometimes fatal accidents, but that has not been the case in more recent times. If there are black spots, we should by all means drop the speed limit but there should not be a blanket drop.

The local authority has been telling Independent Ireland councillors Danny Collins, Daniel Sexton, John Collins and Ger Curley it is not its decision but TII's. The Minister of State, Deputy Byrne replied to me for six minutes instead of the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien because he was busy. He came before the Dáil and said it was not a decision for a Government or anyone else; it was only the local authority. The local authority has replied to my own councillors in question and said it is not its decision. It is an absolute calamity. Nobody knows who is in charge of the roads. If there are roads where there is a situation that is dangerous then yes, the limit could come down. The road between Bandon, Dunmanway, Drimoleague and down into Bantry is the main route into west Cork. Is the Government going to take the limit down? Parts of that road are 80 km/h and some parts 60 km/h. Good God almighty, a bicycle would pass people on the road. That is insane. It will close businesses in west Cork. It cannot happen. Common sense has to come into play. If there is a stretch of that road that is dangerous and it is 100 km/h then it should come down to 80 km/h. If there are stretches of the road that are safe and have never been a danger it should remain at 100 km/h. We are asking for a common sense approach here. We are asking that at least public representatives, be they councillors, TDs or Senators, have some bit of a say and speak to someone but there is no one to speak to because the Government says it is local authorities, the local authorities are kicking the can down the road and shoving it on to someone else.

Then there is Deputy Paul Murphy. I do not like to speak of Deputies when they have gone out of the Chamber but he is saying “You shouldn’t have an electric vehicle. You shouldn’t have a fossil fuel vehicle. You shouldn’t have an SUV vehicle” because he lives in Dublin and he probably cycles around Dublin so he expects people to do business in rural Ireland on a push bike. Well, we live in the real world - he lives in a fantasy – and the real world means that business has to be done. We are pleading for a little bit of consultation and a huge amount of common sense which is missing in this entire conversation. The L road speeds have gone down. There is no issue with that and hopefully it will save lives, deservedly so. I live in a place west of Schull and there is a road across from me that is 80 km/h that you could not do 40 km/h on. Common sense would say that. It had to come down and I have no issue with that. I am only asking about the R586, R585 and even N71 and that there at least be some consultation and that it not just be done as a blanket ban and walked away from. If that is what happens it will just lead to outrage. I know of where there is a road of 22.4 km between Clonakilty and Skibereen, on the N71. If someone gets caught behind a tractor or lorry he or she will be there for the whole of the 29 km without being able to pass and the same applies to the road between Clonakilty and Bandon. It is an astonishing situation in which we find ourselves in west Cork because there has been a lack of investment for years and years.

An Ceann Comhairle

I thank the Deputy. He is eating into his colleagues' time.

Deputy Paul Lawless

Road safety is a really important issue. We must punish reckless and dangerous drivers but the speed limit review is not the solution. It ignores the biggest issues of road safety around enforcement and the fact that the Garda traffic corps has fallen by over 40% since 2009. It ignores dangerous junctions and the lack of right-turning lanes that I have been campaigning on for some years such as the lack of traffic-calming measures, road condition and hedge cutting. While I accept to a degree that the limit on many local roads should have been reduced, the blanket approach to national secondary roads of bringing them from 100 km/h to 80 km/h is totally wrong. Take one example, the N60 linking Claremorris, Castlebar and Ballyhaunis is some of the best stretch of road in County Mayo. This Government wants to ram through a total reduction of its limit to 80 km/h. I listened to a TII engineer on RTÉ radio during the week. He said that all roads without a barrier in the middle will be reduced to 80km/h. That means there will no road in the entire county of Mayo where motorists can drive at 100 km/h. We will have a situation where tractors will be overtaking cars in this country. We are penalising the good law-abiding citizens who obey the speed limit on our road. It must be said that this Government has failed to prosecute the reckless and dangerous driving that is occurring in this country. This Government wants to take us back to the ass and cart. While the cart has been consigned to history there is certainly no shortage of asses driving this legislation. I am asking the Government and the Minister of State to bring in some common sense. It must prevail and local democracy must play its part. We have good councillors in this country who should be able to assist with local area engineers to bring some common sense to allow the good stretches of road to remain at the normal speed limit. Where there are dangerous junctions and data suggests there are dangerous areas the limits should be reduced but it should not come from national Government. The disregard for local democracy and local authorities in relation to speed limits is totally wrong and will lead to more deaths on the roads. It will lead to more dangerous overtaking because people will inevitably get frustrated and that will lead to more dangerous issues on the road. I ask the Minister of State to please bring some common sense into this debate.

Deputy Paul Nicholas Gogarty

The Road Safety Act was a progressive piece of legislation and I commend those involved in its implementation. The legislation, which I broadly welcome, targets three main areas namely mandatory drug testing at the scene of serious collisions; penalty points and some movement around speed limits. It is not a universally well received piece of legislation but we must look first and foremost at saving lives. There are many aspects we need to look at such as ensuring people who cannot drive properly are taken off the road. That means speeding up testing and a zero-tolerance approach to those who serially avoid the tests. It also means more serious consequences for those who drive under the influence or those who drive without insurance. Some time ago, the Motor Insurance Bureau of Ireland suggested that Ireland might have the highest level of uninsured vehicles in the EU. Those driving without insurance are more likely to be the sorts of drivers to kill or maim people. Speed kills so the lower the speed limit, the lower the risk to pedestrians, cyclists and other drivers. A reduction in the speed of a dangerous road may not have everyone keeping the limit but it will certainly discourage many from exceeding the limit to the previous extent. I take on board some of the remarks by my rural colleagues about the types of roads where speed limits are applied. Mayo, for example, had 18 tragic fatalities last year so there is certainly something that needs to be done around particular roads and it needs to be looked at very carefully. However, to improve road safety we need to put in place other complementary measures such as CCTV for those who skip traffic lights or pedestrian crossings. There is a bus lane beside Kishoge train station where people are underpassing. If the gardaí do not have the resources or a traffic corps to enforce rules then we need a dedicated traffic police. I ask the Government to revisit this please.

Deputy John Connolly

There is a theme, which I heard many Deputies remark on at the outset of their contributions, that this is a topic that will be difficult for many, having lost loved ones through road traffic accidents or incidents. I am particularly conscious as the Minister, Deputy O’Brien outlined at the start of the debate that the number of fatalities in recent years has increased despite much good work which has been ongoing prior to now that has seen a significant reduction since the late 1980s through the introduction of the road-safety strategies. I commend the Minister’s comments earlier in the debate where he highlighted in particular the danger and increased threat of those driving under the influence of drugs and driving with excessive speed. I note the concern of some of the Members just before me but I feel communities welcome the reduction in the speed limit. These are measures that will go on to save lives and lead to safer travelling environments for all road users. I also welcome many of the measures and investments outlined at the outset of the debate by the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Canney as we enter phase 2 of the Government’s road safety strategy.

I would like to focus my commentary on one particular initiative introduced by the last Government which the road safety strategy said would be to the forefront of our efforts in road safety. The safe routes to school programme aims to ensure that children can safely get to and from school while also making a difference to congestion on our streets, the health of our children as well as helping achieve our emissions reductions targets. The programme aims to create suitable infrastructure to make walking, cycling and scooting a practical and safe choice for families. I expect the scheme continues to serve that aim and I welcome that the programme for Government commits to expanding the safe routes to school initiative. When the programme was launched some 932 schools applied to participate.

That is nearly a quarter of all schools nationally but over the three strands of the programme, we have seen that some 414 schools have been earmarked for participation. I recognise that is nearly 50% of all those that applied but I feel for those schools that applied but have not been included in the programme as of yet. It would be important to look in particular at those schools that are on national and regional routes and to try to prioritise them for implementation in the scheme.

We are advised that schools that applied will eventually participate but we all are familiar with schools on national and regional routes that are not yet involved in the scheme. In particular, like many other Members, I think of schools in my own community including schools by the N59 between Galway and Clifden where it is a very road, including one that I myself taught in for a number of years. There also is a particular campaign ongoing in Barna where the school is by the R336. There are a number of schools by the R336, which is the main route from Galway city to south Connemara. It is a very busy route. Those schools deserve to be able to make sure that the children attending those schools can do so while walking or cycling safely.

I tabled a parliamentary question recently to get some sense of how many schools that had entered the programme had seen infrastructural enhancements to meet the objective of the scheme. Unfortunately, the NTA has not been in a position to provide me with that detail yet, which is disappointing. I am concerned that the programme is not having the impact that was desired at its initiation. I speak with some insight. The school I myself worked in, which was included in the first phase of the scheme in 2021, as of yet has not had any work done under the scheme despite the fact that the funding has been approved and we need to review that. I get a sense that some local authorities are better and quicker than others in implementing the scheme. If we have the information, we should look at how they are able to do it and other local authorities are not. It may be down to staffing. It is a scheme that could increase the well-being and safety of children as they attend school. We should prioritise its implementation. It is clearly meeting challenges and reluctance as in some locations where works were proposed, they met resistance, which is disappointing.

I would like to think that we will enhance the scheme, give it a broader perspective and include maybe pedestrian crossings as well, rather than only front-of-school treatment.

Deputy Malcolm Byrne

First, I congratulate the Minister of State in his new role. Given some of the debate earlier, Deputy Buttimer now will be familiar with roads all over the country. The Minister of State could probably replace Google Maps, particularly having listened to Deputy Collins knowing the various roads of south-west Cork. I am afraid I will continue somewhat in that vein. However, it is to illustrate some of the requirements around road safety at a national level.

One of the challenges we all know about in our local communities, particularly with local and regional roads, are those dangerous roads where there are accident black spots. Locals will tell you about it but the figures are there from the Garda that set out where we have had a problem with particular accidents over the years. I would instance, for instance, the Gorey to Carnew road. It is one of those roads where over the years there have been accidents because of a number of dangerous bends, etc., on that. In the past, it was much more a case whereby funding was made available to local authorities around road realignments to address some of those difficulties with dangerous roads. In looking at those specific structural issues, making funding available to local authorities, even on a competitive basis, from the Department would make much sense.

I agree with the remarks of Deputies as well on the need to speed up testing. I understand the average wait for a driving test is 21 weeks at present. When the Minister of State's predecessor, the Minister, Deputy Chambers, was in this role in April of last year, he indicated that as part of the service level agreement between the Department and the Road Safety Authority, the target was by this summer to reduce that to ten weeks and the Minister of State might indicate whether that will be achieved.

Finally, I will talk about what in many ways are the most vulnerable groups on the roads, namely, cyclists and pedestrians. We have seen a lot of positive investment in active travel over the past number of years. I look at what is happening in Arklow, for instance, where we are seeing extensive new cycle paths and footpaths being put in place. My problem, though, is that while we are investing heavily in these new facilities, we are not providing sufficient resources for investment in existing urban locations or to repair and maintain existing cycle lanes and cycle paths. I agree with my colleague, Deputy Connolly, when he talked about safe routes to schools and the level of investment, and the return on some of those. The village of Ballycanew in north Wexford is rapidly growing and has a fantastic school right in its heart. However, it is difficult for people to walk from the estates in the village to the school itself because there are not linked-up footpaths and yet there is not funding available for the local authority to be able to provide those footpaths. There is funding for huge new footpaths, including, as the Ceann Comhairle knows well, on the Newtown Road in Wexford town, which is getting millions of euro spent on it, but it is not there to simply provide footpaths in existing areas. I will use another local example, namely, that of Pearse Street in Gorey. It is right in the centre of town. The road was resurfaced recently but the footpaths could not be repaired. The premises of the Irish Wheelchair Association is located on Pearse Street but there is no money to repair the footpath, which is treacherous in places for some wheelchair users and it is safer for the wheelchair users to go on the road, simply because the local authority does not have within its own resources sufficient to be able to address the question of footpaths. We have a similar example with regard to cycle lanes that were installed to both the north and south of Gorey town approximately 15 years ago, going out along the Arklow Road and the Clough Road. They are not being maintained. The local authority has stated it does not have a specified fund to clean and to maintain these, yet when it goes to TII, because it was told that it is not up to modern-day specifications, TII is not providing the funding for it. While we rightly invested a lot in active travel for new footpaths and new cycle lanes, we need to resource local authorities to be able to upgrade existing footpaths and existing cycle lanes. Part of his role has to have the Minister of State, as I am sure he will, working with local authorities to ensure they are adequately resourced to be able to address this.

Deputy Mark Ward

I take the opportunity to wish the Ceann Comhairle and the Minister of State all the best in their respective roles going forward. I wish them every success.

We are discussing road safety today. One of the most efficient ways of reducing road accidents is to reduce the number of cars on the road but to do this you have to have an adequate, properly-funded and reliable public transport system in place. I have had many commuters in my area contact me about unreliable bus services in the area. The main culprits, and the Minister of State probably heard it all over the news in the past week or so, is Go-Ahead bus services.

Go-Ahead is a private operate providing a public service. It is clear that this model is not working. The W2 bus runs from Liffey Valley, through Neilstown and Clondalkin village and ends up in Tallaght. This is the only bus that runs from Clondalkin to Tallaght. Many commuters and residents have been on to me who have missed work or been late for work but, more concerning, I have had numbers of people contact me that they have missed vital appointments in Tallaght hospital and lectures in Tallaght University Hospital. We also have some unreliability issues with the W4, which is leaving residents of Fettercairn stranded.

I received the following communication from the NTA in November about the W6, which is also a Go-Ahead service. It stated, "the W6 will provide a more efficient and reliable travel option for commuters, improving access to jobs, education, and other services ...". That sounds great on paper but the reality is much different. Countless numbers of residents from Newcastle have contacted me to say the W6 was simply not showing up. There is nothing efficient and reliable about the W6. The NTA needs to fulfil its promise. It also needs to be accountable for the promise that it made but the Fianna Fáil Minister also needs to be accountable and make sure the NTA is accountable as well. The Government is trying to get people out of cars but it will not happen by magic. It needs to have that proper public infrastructure in place.

I have also been made aware of other problems on Go-Ahead routes in my area, including the S4, the S6 and the L55. It is simply not good enough.

Privatisation of our public services is not working. It has not worked in water or waste management and is simply not working in public transport. As the Minister of State will be aware, Go-Ahead has been fined millions of euro but it has not been a deterrent to it because it has been carrying on regardless. I should not say it has been carrying on, because it is not going anywhere at the moment. It is time to return private buses to public transport. It is also time to properly invest in public transport.

I am always bemused when I hear Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael TDs from my area say they will arrange meetings with the NTA and the relevant Ministers. I would say to them, "You are in government." I ask them to use their positions in government to influence the parties to change their positions and return public transport from private operators because that is the only way things will work and commuters will get the service they require.

Deputy Barry Heneghan

I am delighted to speak about pressing road safety concerns that affect safety and well-being, especially in my constituency of Dublin Bay North. The urgent need for enhanced road safety measures, particularly around schools and in residential areas, is quite alarming. In neighbourhoods across the northside, such as Marino, Coolock, Raheny, Clontarf, Artane, Darndale and Belmayne - I have missed a few - we are witnessing an alarming increase in traffic-related hazards. The daily routine of school drop-offs and pick-ups is becoming very difficult due to the infrastructure and insignificant traffic calming measures.

Parked cars often create blind spots. This has been raised with me time and again by concerned parents. I am happy to see measures have been taken to put in bollards to stop this. However, there is not enough funding and places are being left out, putting our children at unacceptable risk.

An example of this is in my hometown of Clontarf. Seapark Drive, a residential street, is home to 75 young children. In March 2024 the transport advisory group conducted a speed test here. However, the speed test was conducted at the wrong part of the road - the part where cars actually slow down. The test revealed an 85th percentile speed of 33.2 km. That seems to be at an acceptable limit but it is not. The reality is that the area where children are at risk is not being measured and children will be injured as a result. It does not reflect the reality during the peak hours when the road is being used as a shortcut.

Residents have reported numerous near misses and despite the residents themselves purchasing their own "Go Slow" signs to help with the threat, the council is doing nothing. I have already asked the council to do another speed test. It sent a response but it is not good enough. When, and if a child is injured, who will be to blame?

Similarly, in Killester, children attending the Educate Together schools cross the Howth Road. As I mentioned, during drop-offs cars are continuously not stopping and are reversing out, which is putting people at risk, specifically our children. This is happening time and again in Dublin Bay North and there is a junction at which children are at risk and it is not good enough.

I will draw the Minister of State's attention to Belmayne. Following the completion of a new development beside the Belmayne Road, the construction company has abandoned the area and has not given over charge of it. Speed ramps have been removed and a school there is looking for a zebra crossing but because the construction company has not given over charge of the land to Dublin City Council, DCC, who has responsibility for this issue is being debated.

To address these challenges, I will not just give out but I will propose solutions I hope the Minister of State will listen to. One is increased funding to local councils. DCC has great staff but does not have the funding to target all these areas. We need comprehensive traffic assessments. I mentioned the one in Seapark Drive where traffic calming measures were placed in the wrong area. It does not make sense to conduct the test if it is not conducted where it needs to be done. Enhanced pedestrian infrastructure is needed. We need to install zebra crossings, especially near schools, and ensure footpaths are well maintained. With regard to community engagement, I have seen awareness campaigns by DCC and congratulate it, but we need more. Social media is great for this. We need strict enforcement of traffic laws and to increase the presence of traffic wardens and law enforcement during school hours to deter illegal parking and dangerous driving behaviours.

By implementing these measures we can create a safer environment for residents of Dublin Bay North, and across Ireland. It is our collective responsibility to ensure our streets are safe, especially for children. Let us act proactively rather than waiting for the preventable tragedy of a child losing their life.

Minister of State at the Department of Rural and Community Development (Deputy Jerry Buttimer)

Ar an gcéad dul síos, gabhaim buíochas le gach Teachta a ghlac páirt sa díospóireacht ar shábháilteacht ar bhóithre. Tá gach duine freagrach más tiománaithe iad ar an mbóthar.

I thank the Members of the House for their contributions on the importance of road safety and for the wonderful debate, which was very honest and sincere. Looking at this issue a number of ways, the burden of care on our roads is one we are all responsible for. We all must accept speed does kill. It is incumbent on us to reflect on the fact we have seen an increase in the number of people killed on our roads, with 18 this year which is too many. Road safety is an area in which we all want to see improvements. As we heard during the debate, we may not agree on all of the solutions and policies for doing so. Today's contributions reflect, in a constructive way, that there is sincerity about this on all sides of the House.

Road safety is a significant issue that affects everyone and every family in every community across our country. It is essential we all endeavour to enhance the safety of our road network. Deputy Farrelly made reference to the issue of the perspective of the cyclist and the pedestrian. That is where we all began. Our use of the road was predominantly as a pedestrian or cyclist and we should always keep that in mind. When a vehicle is coming at you at 60 km/h, 80 km/h or 120 km/h, or God forbid more, it is important we have that perspective.

As Members will be aware, travel plays a critical role in both social and economic activities and therefore it is vital it remains safe, irrespective of the mode of transport employed. Deputy James O'Connor referenced the tractor. We all probably started to learn to drive on a tractor as young people on our parents' or grandparents' farms. I hope we will not use that demarcation between the pedestrian, cyclist, the car and "those who pay road tax" because that serves no good in any debate.

I reiterate the Government remains committed to delivering the road transport and safety strategy with the goal of halving the number of fatalities and serious injuries on our roads by 2030. Meeting this ambitious goal will take us towards achieving vision zero by 2050. As the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, referenced in their opening remarks, the four main causes of road fatalities are speed, intoxicated driving, the non-wearing of seatbelts and distraction during road use, all of which come down to driver behaviour and personal responsibility on the part of the road user. Maybe those who make cars, SUVs, lorries, trucks and buses might look at what is in cars today, in terms of dashboards and how they can be viewed and used. Some of it can be quite off-putting to the driver and today our cars are used in a multiplicity of ways. All of these are human factors which can and should be controlled by all individuals who take a car or vehicle on the road.

Addressing these types of behaviours requires a multifaceted approach with a focus on education, enforcement, engineering and engineering investment, and legislative reform. As Members know, every fatality is a stark reminder we cannot be complacent about road safety. Every fatality is avoidable and represents a loss of life that affects the family and the wider community. As I said, 18 people - citizens of our republic - have lost their lives on the roads this year so far. In addition, if one goes to Dún Laoghaire one sees people who have felt the awful effect of serious injury on our roads. In many cases these have been life-changing and life-altering with resulting complications.

It is important that we, collectively, as citizens, do our best to reduce the chance of death or serious injuries on our roads. The Government is working to address this in a variety of ways. Our road safety strategy follows international best practice. It aligns with EU targets and is based on a safe system approach. In his contribution, Deputy Ahern spoke about cyclists. It is important that we continue to look at active travel and looking after our cyclists and pedestrians.

Phase 2 of the action plan for 2025 to 2027 is in development in collaboration with key road safety stakeholders, with formal adoption anticipated shortly. In his contribution, the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, took us through the expansive legislative programme on road safety. We have done an awful lot as a country but we have a bit to travel yet. The Government is committed to commencing outstanding provisions in the 2023 and 2024 Acts and bringing them into effect as soon as possible. Equally, the programme for Government commits us to legislating for graduated penalties, speed education courses and collision data sharing. We will progress the necessary legislation to make these changes in due course. Along with bringing in new legislation, we have an opportunity in the life of this Government to consolidate the existing canon of road traffic law, which extends back to 1961, in a new legislative framework. Work has been ongoing on this project since last year. A dedicated team of experts in the road traffic legislation section is now carrying forward this important work.

As we all know, speed is one of the main causes of death and serious injury on our roads. Many Members expressed dissatisfaction at the reduction of the speed limits and many Members welcomed the introduction, as have members of the public, of safer default speed limits on rural and local roads coming into effect last Friday. The Government will continue to use the experience gained from this phase of implementing the 2023 speed limit review to inform the roll-out and timing of future phases addressing national secondary and urban roads. Personal responsibility is critical. Deputy Carthy and others referred to the speed limits on certain roads. I am very familiar with the roads that Deputy Michael Collins spoke about but I make the point that we have made many changes to that road, particularly the N71, with climbing lanes and dual carriageway safety measures. I believe that road has a proper speed limit now.

The Government has also committed to investing in road safety itself, demonstrated by the Department of Transport's hierarchy of investment priorities, articulated in the national investment framework for transport in Ireland. It ensures that foremost priority is given to maintaining existing assets in a safe condition. This emphasis on protection is also reflected in the national development plan. I agree with Deputy Fitzpatrick about the by-laws. They can be monitored and implemented locally. I will inform the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, of the concerns of Members about the issue of the speed of the driving test and waiting times for the test.

As part of the budget this year and as an interim measure as part of the broader RSA reform announced last year, €18 million has also been ring-fenced for investment this year. This will ensure that an in-year increase in late 2023 and 2024 is sustained this year, helping to deliver a targeted programme of public interest work to deliver behavioural change.

Members in the Chamber, in particular Deputies Byrne, O'Connor and Connolly, referred to young people and young members of society. The new transition year programme will continue to roll out in 2025, following a highly successful launch last year. Work is also well under way on a revamped programme for primary level children on the safe routes to school programme, which has been a huge success. I thank Deputy Byrne for his comments regarding education and his work on that. It is important that we communicate with and positively influence young people's behaviour and safe use of the road. I will be happy to bring some of the Deputies' suggestions back to the Department, because I think they will help to change behaviour and bring in good habits. They will reverse the trends we have seen in recent years.

The RSA will continue the important work of reviewing and reforming the driver test curriculum, ensuring that it is relevant and future-proofed for new drivers on our roads. We all agree that enforcement is critical. It is therefore important that we see more enforcement on our roads. I will bring the remarks in that regard back to the Minister and Department.

I know my time is nearly up, so I will conclude on this. It is important that we continue together to reduce deaths and avoid serious injuries on our roads. I hope the debate today will inform that because we must never underestimate the importance of road safety. That conversation must continue at every level, in every home, by every means possible. I thank Members for their contributions. I look forward to working with them on the important issue of road safety. I will bring the genuine remarks, concerns and suggestions of Deputies back to the Minister.

An Ceann Comhairle

I thank the Minister of State and so say all of us.

Dáil Éireann debate - Thursday, 13 Feb 2025

Road Safety: Statements

Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 13 Feb 2025