Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Cannon, and the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputy Doherty, launched a Bill concerning the minimum passing distance for cyclists in February 2017. For a number of months the Minister with responsibility in this area, Deputy Ross, failed to act. I proposed an amendment to the Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill 2017 before Christmas last year which would give legal effect to the proposals, and on the day the Committee for Transport, Tourism and Sport met, lo and behold, Minister Ross held a press briefing and said that he was immediately going to bring forward a statutory instrument to introduce a minimum passing distance. When pressed on the meaning of "immediately" he said that it would be done within weeks. That was over four months ago. Hundreds of thousands of people who are cycling on a daily basis realise the urgent need for this statutory instrument. The Minister, who has the power to act on this, does not seem to realise the urgency. Can the Taoiseach ask, or instruct, Minister Ross to honour the commitment he gave at that press conference over four months ago in the interests of the hundreds of thousands of cyclists who use our roads on a daily basis? He should sign the statutory instrument and concentrate on his own brief rather than the briefs of others.

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