Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

These road deaths are a slaughter. They have crosses on the roadsides with the number of people killed, but we have no sign of any funding. I do not know what the motorcyclists call the 2+1 road but it is lethal, with a steel wire stretched up the road, and if anyone hits it at any kind of speed, they are cut in two halves. The Minister saw it was the wrong design and that there should have been two underpasses and overpasses. The locals at the time had hired engineering expertise to design the road properly but it is now going to cost tens of millions to correct it. I do not mind spending tens of millions if it saves one life or a number of lives, but the design is very dangerous. The Minister saw it and was given the presentation. It is a long stretch of road from the outside of Carrick-on-Suir, County Kilkenny, and on to Fiddown. There are other such roads at Clontibret in Monaghan and when coming off the M8 at Cloghabreeda, going south, where the last 3 km is a 2+1 road. They are terribly dangerous roads and I wonder how some body like the RSA has not insisted they be discontinued. We have motorways with proper concrete barriers, which have such a grade of concrete that the cars will hop off them if they hit. The steel wire, however, is lethal, and God help us if it breaks or snaps, as no one knows where it will end up because of the tension in the wire. People have lost their lives due to those steel ropes without ever being on a road. In the past-----

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