I beg to raise the question, of which I have given notice, as to non-compliance by military motor cars with the traffic regulations in the City of Dublin.
I desire to refer briefly to the extraordinary speed at which motor lorries dash through our streets at night without either lights in front or at the rere. In some cases, and in thickly populated areas, they go at the rate of from 40 to 50 miles an hour. I am sure it is only necessary to make reference to this matter and to draw the attention of the Minister for Defence to it, because I feel confident that, having done so, he will issue instructions to say that there is no necessity for this excessive speed in the heart of the city, and that he will also issue instructions to have the traffic regulations enforced, so far as military lorries are concerned. I am not raising this question entirely on my own. It was brought to my knowledge by people calling to the Mansion House, calling to me more or less in my official position and asking me if I would raise the matter. No later than this morning I had a visitor complaining that last night on the North Strand Road, evidently going to or from the Clontarf district, that cars dashed up around Amiens Street Station and down Talbot Street at a very high speed. While I will allow for exaggerations on the part of the persons making the complaints, they said that without doubt the cars dashed up at the rate of 40 or 50 miles an hour. Even at that late hour, with the extension of summer time, there were children on the street, and when the cars dashed up it was a case of helter-skelter for the passers-by crossing the thoroughfares. It was a case with some of them of almost losing their lives. I merely ask now that the Minister for Defence will see that the Chief Commissioner of Police is helped to carry out the traffic regulations of the city, which he has so ably handled within the last two months. I desire to take advantage of this opportunity to pay a tribute to the Commissioner of Police for the very able way in which he has dealt with the traffic regulations in the City of Dublin.
