Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State has been quoting figures from 2004 and other years. How many vehicles were on the road in 2004, the year for which he is citing those figures, compared with the number of vehicles on the road today? He said he wants to reduce the speed limits across the country, which will have a big impact on the transport network. What are we going to do? Our transport network cannot get people to the place they need to get to on time. Now, we are going to put more vehicles on the road at a slower pace, so that we end up with a line of traffic putting people at risk. It will be a major problem for the Government when people's lives are put at risk. The Government is reducing the speed limits on roads where there are no accidents.

Looking at the statistics, how many of these accidents have been caused by drink, drugs, drink and drugs or speed? If we have more gardaí on the roads to police them, we might have fewer accidents but the Government depleted the Garda service. More people are retiring from the Garda now than are coming in. The Government might say it is getting a certain number but it is not. It is losing the experienced gardaí who are there at the moment. We have an increase of vehicles on the road. The Government has reduced the number of traffic gardaí, so there are no gardaí on the roads and nobody to police them. Every town and village has asked, because of the lack of police, for the Government to put in speed ramps where there are speeding offences. It has not done so. Speed ramps police themselves. That is common sense. We are trying to save lives here, not take lives. Policing in this country is key. The Minister needs to talk to the Garda Commissioner to make sure we encourage people into the Garda and not push them away. That is where our problems lie.

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