Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is a very important Bill which is welcomed by everybody in the House. Unfortunately, the figures speak for themselves. On this date last year the number of people killed on our roads was 118, but today the figure stands at 138. So far this year there have been 20 more road deaths than last year. One individual is an appalling statistic, but those figures clearly show that we need to do a lot more to prevent deaths, and this Bill will significantly address issues, in particular drug driving, substance abuse and lower speed limits in residential areas.

The Road Safety Authority should be praised for its campaign and the significance of its input. I met its representatives recently about a different matter and urge them to communicate with all Members of the Oireachtas on the reasons why more people are dying on our roads and what we need to do about it on a cross-party basis. One of the key issues is speed and people driving recklessly.

There are problems with drivers driving with abandon, driving without due care and attention and so forth.

I will now turn to another problem. I bet that my colleague, Deputy Peter Fitzpatrick, and I will agree on at least one thing. Tonight when he is driving home, he will be passed by a car breaking the speed limit and which will have a Northern Ireland registration. That happens to me every day and every night when I am on the M1. This is a really serious problem. It is very significant that in the South nine out of ten drivers driving at much faster speeds than they ought to have a Northern Ireland registered car. No doubt that is probably reciprocated by southern registered drivers who drive in the North. There is still a difficulty with regard to speeding offences in the South if one is driving a northern registered car. Perhaps the Minister will follow this up if I submit a parliamentary question. It is not acceptable, it is highly dangerous behaviour and it is not good enough.

I wish to bring to the Minister's attention the roadside sale of cars. I am sure it will be the second thing that Deputy Fitzpatrick and I will agree on. In his town and in mine, we find a significant number of cars for sale at the side of the road, maybe near a supermarket or on a roundabout, with "for sale" signs on them. People are selling these cars in a commercial manner. Sometimes at weekends, I see seven or eight cars in a row with "for sale" signs and advertising an 086 or 087 phone number. I have called them to find out more about these cars and I generally end up talking to some guy in Dublin, or who has a Dublin accent. I ask about the standards the cars meet, road safety certificates and road tests, etc. We need to be more proactive with regard to the roadside sale of cars when we do not know who is selling them and there is no control over the practice. Many of these cars may, in fact, have been crashed. It is a serious and significant issue.

I will now turn to the question of speed limits. I agree with Louth County Council's recent decision to enforce the 30 km/h speed limit in 44 housing estates in the county. When that information went online, people were obviously very happy that their estates were included but other estates could not understand why they were not included. I propose that there could be a default position. In estates, and I am defining estates as an area separate from a main road or a through road, the speed limit should, by default, be 20 km/h, full stop. That should be our national law. People also raise the issue of speed limits near schools with me. No matter where a school is located, there should be significantly reduced speed limits for at least 1 km on either side of the school, depending on the road type. I know rural schools can be on a road with a speed limit of 80 km/h or 100 km/h but we need to define clearly the significant need to reduce speeds adjacent to schools.

Questions must be asked about what the councils are doing about this situation. They tell me there is going to be a speed limit in a housing estate and there is a lovely map, so we know where the speed limit signs are going to go. However, what is going to happen after they go up? We need enforcement but we know the gardaí do have not have the time to go into every single housing estate in the country. Other speakers also addressed the need for other engineering solutions to speeding cars in housing estates. Deputy Rabbitte referred to chicanes and the narrowing of roads to make it more difficult for people to drive through at speed. The Deputy made a very good point that a rumble strip costs €175. I would like to say that to my county council engineer who needs to know that. I do not see any rumble strips in any of our housing estates right now. Let us get real. Perhaps, as part of the Minister's initiative and being the great and good Minister that he knows he is, he could bring in the local authorities' county managers. He was well used to addressing them through the medium of print. I respectfully suggest that he brings them in for discussions, with their chief road engineers or whoever the appropriate and significant player is in the county council, to see what is being done and what aid the local authorities need. It amazes me when council officials tell me they want to install speed ramps but they do not have any money. I do not know where the money is going because every household is now paying their property tax. Local authorities are not getting value for money. The taxpayer who is paying is not getting value for money from our county councils and a significant dose of realism needs to be injected by the Ministers, whomever they may be.

One of the problems we suffer as Members of the Dáil and the Seanad is that we cannot attend county council meetings. The reality is that councils are not doing their job and are saying that they do not have the resources but I believe they have the resources. This is not acceptable. My Facebook page has 45 comments from people in a number of housing estates, all saying the same thing. They want enforcement and they want it now. I very much welcome this legislation but it is very important the Minister engages - it may be something he is already doing or has just not done yet - with the local authorities about this very important issue and pushes them. If local authorities need extra funding, or if they want to buy 10,000 rumble strips at €175 each, then let us provide them and put them into the housing estates. It is not acceptable that Deputy Rabbitte and I do not see the strips anywhere.

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