Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

It is good to see the number of deaths reduced. This has happened for a myriad of reasons - improved roads, vehicle safety and lower volumes of traffic. It is difficult to oppose a reduction in the alcohol level but, as a broad generalisation, I have concerns about legislation that can make life more difficult for the citizen and society. I take Deputy Dowds's point about walking to pubs. Many people are killed walking home from pubs because they are intoxicated, but if they drove home with a small amount of alcohol in their blood they might be safer. I do not mean to be flippant on the matter but are we talking about introducing legislation to prevent people walking if their alcohol intake is over a certain level? Where do we stop? Given that, it is very difficult to go against any measure to reduce alcohol levels but we must be mathematical and analytical rather than populist. Should we make people who go out walking after dusk wear reflective material? I am sure that would assist in reducing the number of deaths. I would like to see statistics on that.

I raise two main interrelated points. Every morning when I wake up I open my curtains. On many mornings when I look across the Slaney valley I see one of the new speed camera vans parked at an entrance to a forest. I am not sure whether this is a blackspot area but to the best of my knowledge the last person killed on that stretch died during the 1800s when a wall fell on him. I have grave concerns about the speed camera approach. I tabled a parliamentary question on this last October but have not yet received any information. I will table a series of questions on the matter today because it is my view that very often speed cameras are located with the intention of obtaining the maximum amount of cash rather than assisting towards road safety. I am not a rebel by nature but when I see the speed camera across the road it makes my blood boil early in the morning. During the week I spoke to a very safe driver who has six penalty points, all accumulated by the person going to Mass early in the morning, not by tearing around the back roads of our country.

Deputy Hannigan mentioned an anomaly which the Minister might address on Committee Stage. If a primary road is bypassed by a motorway its speed limit drops to 80 km/h. There could be stretches of the old N9, for example, which used to be a national primary road, that now have a speed limit of 80 km/h while the N81, an inferior road nearby, has a limit of 100 km/h. My understanding is that the road between the old dual carriageway between Oranmore and Galway should have a limit of 80 km/h unless a derogation has been obtained by the county council. The automatic reduction of a national primary route to an 80 km/h road if it is bypassed by a superior motorway must be addressed. It also gives rise to a great deal of confusion. There is an area outside Carlow on which someone I know got four penalty points in recent weeks, two going in and two coming out, because the road which had a 100 km/h limit now had an 80 km/h limit. There must be cohesion between areas.

The other point I wish to raise with the Minister - I did so last week - is end of route signage. When I leave the airport I see a sign for Westport but for nowhere else. We must examine how we can have hospital signposts and tourist facilities included in road signage.

Regarding old railway bridges and maximum weight, I am concerned there may be an accident at one of them. An audit of these should be carried out.

On clearing roads of snow, I would not like to see the Minister in the Chamber in January or February claiming, as did the previous Government, that he is doing this or that. He should try to have a plan organised beforehand, using local community groups, and put measures in place. I know the Minister likes to spend time late at night looking at statistical information and analysing same. He might analyse a mechanism by which we could evacuate Dublin during bad weather and not have everyone trying to go down the country at the one time between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m., coming to roundabouts we cannot get around. There could be a system in place based on one's postal address so that one would leave work between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. or whatever, and in that way we could all get out. During the past two bad occasions I came into Dublin and what I saw coming against me was chaotic. A little bit of forethought and organisation is needed and discipline could assist.

I am not an advocate of burning speed cameras, as has happened on a few occasions, but let us introduce a little bit of pragmatism and reality and allow them do the job they are supposed to do rather than act as a cash cow trying to catch out individuals.

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