Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As someone who cycles more to Leinster House than I drive, I appreciate that there is a balance to be struck. For example, we could all drive to Cork at 10 km/h but it would take us four weeks, 40 hours or whatever. No one is suggesting that. Much of the time, I see people flying past me but, when I get to the lights, I am going past them because they are in a queue of cars. I do not understand people who accelerate to lights just to sit in a queue, but that is a separate issue because the queues are not there at night and people are flying up and down many arterial roads at much more than 50 km/h or 60 km/h.

We must do whatever we can to harness technology that tracks people's behaviour. It was a former Minister for Transport, Mr. Séamus Brennan, who asked me to run for local office the first time. He introduced penalty points. All of a sudden, we saw driver behaviour changing considerably. At the time, it was three offences. Is it 70 now? I believe it used to be just seat belts, mobile phones and something else. Whether we liked it or not, the penalty points system was transformative. Dr. D'Arcy might speak about the technological aspect of speed limits and how deliverable that is. It will be the game changer, given what happens when people are monitored, be it via a tracker device in the car or any other technology.

I would love to see ramps gone from estates because they wreck cars, are annoying and expensive to maintain and do nothing for the environment. They are a blunt tool and were necessary 20 or 30 years ago. I would love to see them being replaced by intelligent technology in cars that stops people from speeding wherever they are.