Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

My question does lead into road safety. Transport Infrastructure Ireland, which is the agency responsible for national roads and motorways, produced two reports over the past two years. One related to reducing speeds on national roads and the impact that would have on climate emissions. Part of that report suggested that if we reduced the speeds on those national roads, the cars may divert onto regional or lower grade roads, causing further collisions. In my view, that report should have considered what interventions would be required on those roads rather than just producing a report saying that, if we reduced speed limits, it would drive cars onto those roads and there would be an increase in collisions.

I have not seen its most recent report but I have seen snippets of it in the press. The transport chief, as I think he was referred to, suggested that if 18 road projects do not proceed, there will be an increase of 77 fatalities. I have not seen that report and I do not know who has. We do not have the context for that and we do not know what assumptions are being made in both of those reports. I am concerned that TII is producing reports compiled by consultants who build roads to suggest that if we do not build more roads we are going to have greater collisions and greater fatalities. We do not have the full context of that. I think the first report is slightly flawed, and for the second report I do not have the context or the assumptions that were made. It can be quite difficult as a public representative to try to defend what we are trying to do on roads versus public transport. My concern is that you could almost suggest that the roads issue is being politicised by an agency. That is not something we want to see. The priority of all public representatives is to ensure we have proper road safety, proper transport and proper investment in public transport. Does the Minister of State have any concerns about those two reports that were produced by TII, directly related to the road safety aspect?