Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have a couple of questions to ask the Minister of State rather than giving him four or five. In case he gets the impression that I am not 100% behind the what he is doing, it is not that I am trying to pick holes but I genuinely have concerns. I am very concerned at how the number of fatalities on the roads has increased in the past three and a half to four years, in particular in light of the fact that we had so much of that period when there was not a car on the road. The Minister of State and I were coming to work for a period of probably 18 months when there was not a single other sinner on the road. How significant is that increase? It looks awful but how significant of an increase is it given that we had so few motorists on the road for such a long time during Covid?

The second part of the question is that before we get to the 186 actions, which I know the Minister of State is ambitious to do, in order to attempt to reduce the fatalities by 50%, could he tell me why the current laws are not working? We have a lorry load of laws and speed limits around the country. We have attempted to introduce legislation in recent years to make dangerous driving affecting cyclists an offence, but we could not get it to the Statute Book because the Attorney General felt it was too wishy-washy. Two of the four deaths in recent weeks involved people on bicycles. Why are the existing laws not working?