Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to get the opportunity to raise a number of points about safety on our roads. I hope some of the things I will mention will be considered in the Road Traffic Bill we are discussing.

Safety on our roads has been compromised by a number of things, including the lack of proper speed limits. I highlight the example of the N22 going into Killarney. For several years, we have raised this issue with Kerry County Council and have asked that the speed limit be reduced going through Glenflesk where the people go to Mass at 7 o'clock. On a winter's evening it is very dangerous. They park at the side of the road and have to cross to the church but the maximum speed limit applies here. For years we have been asking for this to be reduced, as it is in Lissarda, County Cork, over the hill from us. It is the same N22 road. The request has fallen on deaf ears. The people of Kerry are entitled to the same treatment and their lives are as important as those of the people in Cork.

The same applies at Lissivigeen where the speed limit is reduced to 60 km/h just to go through the roundabout. After going through the roundabout the speed limit again increases to the maximum 100 km/h for about 900 m. In between there is a junction where many people have been badly hurt and maimed going up to Coolcaslagh. I was there one night when people were cutting the roof off a car and the young man inside was as pale as the sheet of paper in my hand. He said to me, "Danny, can you get me out of here?" I have not forgotten that yet. All it takes is to have the sign changed. I was not alone in raising this in Kerry County Council. If we are to talk about enhancing safety on our roads, these are the kinds of issues the RSA should be considering.

A number of years ago the speed limit on local roads was changed to 80 km/h. On some of these roads a driver can do no more than 25 km/h or 30 km/h - that is the ambient speed. However, it gives the right to someone to go mad and drive up to 80 km/h on these roads. People are terrified trying to access the roads from their homes. In some cases children are just inside the walls scared of their lives. These roads need to be assessed with a view to applying proper speed limits.

We also need to recognise the increased volume of traffic. We are talking about safety. Approaching Killarney, there are about six junctions, including one at Woodlands Road and one at the top of the Lewis Road where there have been many crashes with people badly hurt. No recognition has been given to any elected representative who raised this previously. Lewis Road on the bypass is a newly constructed road - constructed in the past 20 years. There is another one at the Madam's Hill. They are all on the national primary road. At Farranfore village people turn left for Dingle - the whole world is going that way - and that is also a very dangerous route. We asked for a mini-roundabout to make that safe until the bypass is built but no one is listening.

I have another issue with the bodies regulating lorries and buses on our roads. I understand we have four of them. First, there is the CVRT and the Department that deals with that. We all agree that vehicles must be in a proper condition to go on the road. In case it might be mentioned later, let me say that I own buses and lorries but I am not talking for myself. I am talking about all the bus operators and hauliers. For the CVRT to test a lorry or a bus here, it costs €330 but it only costs £90 in Britain or the North of Ireland. That anomaly should be addressed to give fair play to Irish operators. It costs €114 for an agricultural jeep in Ireland but only £31 in Britain or the North of Ireland.

Along with the CVRT, we have to deal with the RSA. A lorry driver could have his lorry tested one day and go out on the road. Two days later the RSA might stop him for whatever it might find and could put him off the road for a week or a month even though the lorry has passed the district CVRT and complied with everything.

Another agency, the Freight Transport Association, FTA, a UK body, can do the same. One operator told me that the FTA told him he was required to keep a hammer in the vehicle to break the glass in an emergency. His PSV officer told him he was not required to keep a hammer in the vehicle as that was only required under English law. The level of over-regulation and cross-regulation in this area is hurting operators.

Another serious issue is the over-growth of hedges and bushes on our roads. This is dangerous to people using our local roads, in terms of their almost having their eyes picked out, and it is the cause of many serious accidents on other roads. Last winter, I was driving behind a lorry that knocked a branch off a tree which landed on the road in front of my car. If that branch had hit a school bus it could have forced the bus driver off the road and resulted in children being injured or killed. Drivers are being exposed to great danger on our roads. According to environmentalists we cannot cut hedges at a particular time of the year even though that is the time of year they most need to be cut. As I said on many occasions in Kerry County Council Chamber birds are not so foolish as to make their nests outside of a ditch on a busy road or on the branch of a tree over-hanging the road because if they did they would be blown to smithereens or their feathers would be blown all over the road leaving them naked. The birds are not that foolish. The cutting of hedges, bushes and trees should be permitted all year round for the safety of the people. While the level of regulation on drivers and vehicles is ever increasing our roads are not safe. I hope I am getting the message across to the Minister.

There is an unfairness in terms of the way in which the law regarding the cutting of bushes and hedges is being interpreted. I have been travelling to and from Dublin for many years. The hedges and bushes on our motorways are cut at least twice a year. Not even a briar is allowed to grow on the motorways but local authorities are not even permitted to issue letters to landowners in relation to the cutting of hedges and bushes on local roads until 1 September, which is ridiculous because at that time of the year the leaves, briars and so on disintegrate. At the time when hedges and bushes most need to be cut they are not being cut. I am asking the Minister to raise this issue with the Road Safety Authority, RSA, and to ensure that something is done about it. We are still awaiting promised legislation in this regard. At a meeting two years ago of Kerry County Council we were told that the Minister would be introducing legislation that would provide for an increase in the permitted cutting time by one month. That has not happened. It is important our roads are safe all year round.

In some areas, foresters - I am not speaking specifically about Coillte - are permitted to plant to the edge of a road. That should no longer be permissible. No tree should be within falling distance of a road. Falling trees can kill people as, sadly, has happened in Kerry, leaving a young woman and her children without a husband and father. We must prevent this happening. As I understand it in France no bush or tree is allowed to be planted within falling distance of the road. I am asking the Minister to review the law in this area, which is unfair on the people travelling our roads.

The volume of traffic on our roads is ever-increasing. If an assessment in that regard is not carried out our roads will become clogged up and unsafe. We need to invest in our roads. There is 4,000 kilometres of road in Kerry. Many of those roads were built two centuries ago. Listry Bridge in Kerry was built 260 years ago. It is located on the main artery between Killarney and Dingle. The Minister will be aware of the large volume of traffic that passes over that bridge every day during the summer. The bridge can only be accessed by one vehicle at a time such that if a driver who is not familiar with the bridge progresses across the bridge while another vehicle is coming in the other direction there could be a crash. There have been several crashes on that bridge. Many of our bridges were built in the 1800s and only some of them have been upgraded slightly since then. Given the volume of traffic on our roads it is important the safety of our roads into the future is addressed.

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