Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I thank the witnesses, especially those from An Garda Síochána. I have many friends in the force and their job has become more difficult in recent years. As public representatives, when we have opportunities to express gratitude on behalf of the people we represent, we should do so. Some cohorts of society have decided to make up their own rules, whether it is on the road or when they are out for a night and so on. Those of us who set the laws of Ireland should always place value on what the Garda does and support it at every opportunity.

In line with what the Cathaoirleach said, I pay tribute to those in the meeting room who have lost loved ones. It is hard to listen to their stories. Ms Gray spoke about policy changes, but her story began with how she lost her husband and that should be foremost in all our thoughts. Last November, we buried my mother-in-law, following a road traffic accident in Charleville, County Cork.

She is one of the 174 people whom we have referred to today.

There are a number of points I wish to make. The last time we dealt with road safety I spoke about unaccompanied learner drivers. It is probably a tone-deaf thing to bring up today given what Mr. Waide said at the beginning of his testimony. I wish to take a moment to clarify what I said because it ended up on the airwaves in the following days. It was with every good intention. I say that coming from a family who has lost a loved one on the roads in the past year. I thank Mr. Waide for coming back with detail on my contribution that day. The idea of having an accompanied driver makes so much sense. Sometimes theory and practice are two different things. The point I was making was that in rural counties like Clare where there is no Luas line or DART or whatever and people are trying to get to college and work, it is not always followed in practice. Our good colleagues in An Garda Síochána do not have the capacity to police that. That rule, though well-intentioned, is not operating very well. We should not say that things do not work and then abandon them and so on. That approach only ingrains danger on the roads further.

New technology cannot be ignored. Mr. Waide came back on that in great detail, which I appreciate. A lot of the e-scooters have speed restrictors on them, so no matter how fast a person tries to go, they cannot go over a certain speed. It is the same with a lot of these Vespas. The European Union has brought in a regulation that by next year there will be mandatory general safety regulation in all vehicles. It will alert drivers if they are veering out of their lane or getting drowsy. All of this will come in. The EU reckon this will save 25,000 lives by 2038. There has to be some technology that will control speed and ensure that a car going through a 60 km/h zone will be forced to slow down to that speed. Volkswagen cars in the city of Aachen in Germany are all regulated like this. No matter how fast they try to drive, a little chip will bring them down to the speed limit. We cannot be ignoring that new technology a decade on. Is there anything new the RSA is looking at in terms of these new technologies that we should be bringing into Ireland?