Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will not take that long as I have to go to another meeting. First, I am glad the committee is hosting this meeting today and I welcome it. I pay tribute to the work of the Road Safety Authority, to Dr. Lorraine D'Arcy and particularly to the Love 30 campaign. Its enormous work over many years and the use of data and evidence to persuade people of the need to reduce speed limits have been critical to bringing us to where we are now and where we need to go. I fully support the call to introduce legislation to have speed limits of 30 km/h by default in built-up areas across the country. The common thread through the conversation today is that if we have a safe speed approach, it will be vital to promoting active travel within communities and to encouraging more cycling and a safer space for pedestrians.

I am based in the north side of Dublin and live in communities that are gateways to the city centre for cars. We must ensure that they are communities for pedestrians, cyclists and people as opposed to communities for cars just to pass through. The key thing from this committee today is that the evidence has been unequivocal regarding the need to move to a speed limit of 30 km/h in built-up areas. I thank the three groups of contributors for that. That Ireland is a laggard is a very important message to get across. I thank our guests for pointing to the examples in Wales, Spain, Scotland, Belgium and other countries in terms of how far ahead they have moved and how little we have done here.

For me, there is a practical impact from this. Dublin City Council has rolled out safe school zones across the city. It has been very successful, but schools on the Ratoath Road and St. Joseph's in East Wall cannot get the full school zone treatment and ensure there is full safety for their pupils and parents going to school. They cannot have a 30 km/h speed limit on their roads because they are on busy primary roads. We need to be able to change that, to have the speed limit by default at 30 km/h and ensure that schools and every other public amenity can be afforded that safe space.

I have a question about enforcement because this is continually thrown back at us. People ask: "What is the point in having a 30 km/h speed zone if there are no speed cameras or if the gardaí are not there?" The conversation this morning with Deputy Matthews has been very instructive, and the Road Safety Authority dealt with it in its contribution. That is the secondary issue here. Having the speed limit alone is very important. What are the witnesses' views on the power and the resources that now need to go into complementing the 30 km/h speed zone, if we were to have that by default? The Love 30 campaign has been campaigning on this for many years so what additional powers at national level and what resources does it believe need to go into those complementary actions? I believe local authorities need to be better resourced. What are the witnesses' views on that?