Terry Brennan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations. It is a pity that we have to appoint a regulator in the first instance but we are obviously paying for our sins of the past. Can the regulator overrule a decision of a county council? I know the Minister has the final decision but can the regulator recommend or change a decision? While I served on local authorities, I discovered issues in new estates such as speeding, which is a big problem in any estate I know, and parking in estates. I visited an estate recently with six OPDs and 28 houses. A total of 54 vehicles were parked there, many of which were parked illegally. I often wondered how an ambulance or fire brigade would get into these estates. These were local authority estates where one might not expect to see two or three cars parked where there are teenagers or those in their early 20s. Should we look at it and should we have less density and provide more car parking spaces? In respect of speeding, I have come across estates where people have been living for the best part of 20 years and discovered that a lot of speeding was taking place. Speed bumps have been installed by local authorities. Should we legislate so that at the building stage, the developer provides speed bumps in private estates and the local authority provides them in local authority estates?

I have a point to make with regard to a roadway where two cars cannot pass but where one must pull into a ditch or gateway to allow the other to pass, where there is no speed limit sign and where the speed limit is understood to be 80 km/h. I know we cannot expect them to be patrolled. Stirling Moss or some of the other famous drivers would not be able to do 80 km/h on such a road. I am talking about roads in the heart of the Cooley peninsula, where I come from, which takes in the mountain regions of Omeath and Glenmore. I see it from a planning perspective. If the speed limit is 80 km/h on the road, the stopping distances and line-of-sight distances are not attainable in the vast majority of cases. Indeed people have had to look for a slice of the adjacent field or property and may not have obtained it because there may be a difference of opinion between neighbours. I am not sure whether we have legislated for an 80 km/h per hour speed limit on roads that do not have speed limit signs. Should we legislate for a 50 km/h speed limit based on the width of the road? I am talking about roads that may have grass growing down the middle. Perhaps this is not something we can legalise but should or can we legislate for some of these changes?