Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will conclude with a few comments rather than questions. The Minister of State needs to have some oversight over TII and the NTA. They are very tricky for us, as elected representatives, to deal with. They are faceless. Half the time, we do not know who we are dealing with. We cannot get answers from them. It is a level of quangoism that came in some years ago with the HSE. There used to be linear management in Departments but now it goes Minister to quango and back again with local authorities fitting in somewhere. I ask that the contact person in the Department goes to the TII and the NTA to check in with them. Their communications with elected representatives are malfunctioning.

Finally, there is a road safely subhead. Local authority members are frustrated that speed limit reviews are locked into five-year cycles. You can throw all the money at flashing signage and safety campaigns but an age-old instrument to secure some level of road safety has been the speed limit signs. They have been around since the foundation of the State. There was a time local authority members could go into a meeting and by resolution, and with engineering and Garda agreement, instate a new speed limit. That is now tied into five-year cycles. It is not good enough and it does not have the flexibility for situations that happen each year.

Those are some comments that the Minister of State might digest. I thank her for everything. We would love to hear dates the next day for when some of these measures will happen.