Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A lot of questions have been asked and I will try to respond to as many as I can. A number of them are for the Minister for Justice and Equality and I do not wish to answer questions on his behalf. I will be liaising with the Minister for Justice and Equality on the road safety strategy, which will be signed off by the whole Government, not just my Department. We have a Cabinet sub-committee on road safety which includes the Garda and the Minister for Justice and Equality. I understand that it is their intention to maintain the traffic corps at a similar level to the situation currently. The fact that there will be fewer gardaí in stations and more out in cars will assist with that.

In response to Deputy Clare Daly’s question, I have no news on the report on the ticket fixing or squaring scandal but I look forward to seeing the report. It is something in which I have a great interest. My understanding is that the GoSafe vans are contacted by the Garda. That is the first I have heard of the issues raised by the Deputy. I have not heard of such complaints from staff but I will ask the RSA to examine the situation and see whether issues arise in terms of GoSafe vans. It is important that people trust the system and that it has integrity. I will undertake to ask the RSA to examine the issue.

In response to Deputy O’Donovan’s question on the category of injuries, it is intended to do that. I have appointed to the board of the RSA the head consultant in the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dún Laoghaire. The situation is complicated because even in medicine there is not a clear classification of injuries but it is something we want to include in the new strategy, in order that it is not just about fatalities but about life-changing injuries and how they impact on people.

We are doing a speed limit review at the moment. I have the draft of it. One of its recommendations speaks to what the Deputy said and suggests that the 80 km speed limit signs on tertiary roads and boreens effectively act as a target and not as a limit. The suggestion being made is that we remove them altogether or replace them with the previous delimiter signs which the Deputy may recall with the white circle and the grey stripe through it. I will consult with the Oireachtas committee on the report but I personally think it would probably be the right thing to do on the basis that people are treating the limit as a target rather than as a speed limit. It would be better if the signs were not there or if we had a delimiter sign instead.

See this speech in context