Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Matthews. On the first point, the legislation relates to the default baseline. There is no legislative impediment to local authorities putting in the appropriate physical signs or other interventions required to slow traffic. Many of them are doing this, and we can see this happening here in the city, as well as in other towns and villages. As part of the overall active travel budget, this is being done to some extent.

Regarding what guidance or engineering standards might need to be tweaked to facilitate more of these interventions, that is a wider discussion. If we are reducing the speed limit in an urban area, at 30 km/h we wish to ensure that the signage and overall road and other infrastructural elements are engineered in a way that facilitates the appropriate speed limits. This is the wider context that will have to be reflected in guidance. There is nothing, however, restricting a local authority, from a legislative perspective, from progressing such interventions themselves and many of them have done that.

Turning to the point regarding schools, I recently met, as did the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, with the safe routes to school team in the NTA who have done tremendous work in schools across the country in bringing value-engineered solutions in school environments to give quick progress to facilitate an uptake of active travel and accommodate pupils and their parents to walk or cycle to school. Some of these interventions may be those that Deputy Matthews referred to, but we are keen to expand this endeavour as well. A wider point we must consider is how we can ensure that this type of approach becomes the norm when schools are being designed and built. We are going to try to do further work on ensuring that the schools built today are fit for the future to enable active travel in respect of how they are being built. We are getting engagement in this regard.

Moving to the Deputy's point about the Garda Commissioner and submissions relating to the matter he referred to, there is a plan to establish an online portal to allow the reporting of incidents as part of a suite of introductions under the Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Bill 2022. This will involve the establishment and introduction of a digital evidence management system, DEMS. The legislation must be progressed before this system is established, and a tender process will also be necessary in this regard. This is the note I have received on this point specifically.