Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will start by echoing that point. It is not just in County Louth; in County Meath as well and, I am sure, elsewhere the road conditions are deplorable. It is causing damage to vehicles and it needs to be tackled. There needs to be increased investment to allow that to happen.

I want to raise two points. One relates to Garda numbers and roads policing. Driver behaviour is deteriorating because drivers have licence to behave badly. They are not being caught and not being punished. We have heard on numerous occasions at transport committee meetings from the medical bureau and others that it is the fear of getting caught that has a real impact on driver behaviour. Technological solutions such as speed vans are welcome but will not cut it on their own. In my county, Meath, we have the lowest number of gardaí per head of population. The number of gardaí we have is actually lower than it was in 2009, 15 years ago. The population has significantly increased in that time. As regards the roads policing unit numbers, we had 47 fewer in 2023 than in 2022, at a time road fatalities had increased significantly, by in the region of 20%. Deflection from the Minister, rhetoric or concern from the new Taoiseach will not cut it. We need to increase the numbers of visible gardaí on the roads detecting people breaking speed limits and other measures.

The other issue I want to raise relates to traffic calming measures at schools, particularly rural schools but also in urban settings, and the behaviour of drivers. We need to create a space for children to be able to get to and from school safely. In my local newspapers every week there are children outside their local national school calling for traffic calming measures and for speed to be reduced outside schools. Skryne National School, Cushinstown National School, Carnaross National School, Lismullen National School - I could go on. There is a need for a standard approach outside our national schools. My colleague, Councillor Helen Meyer, has called for this on Meath County Council. It needs to happen.

See this speech in context