Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Leddin for raising this matter, which I am taking of behalf of the Minister of State for Transport, Deputy Naughton. First, I take this opportunity, on behalf of both the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and the Minister of State, to express our deepest sympathies to the family of Aoibheann Duffy, who was killed in a collision near Abbeydorney on Monday night. Any death on the road is a death too many but we can all agree that the loss of a young child - in this case, only 11 years of age - is desperately sad.

I understand Aoibheann was cycling near her home on Monday when she was struck by a van. This has become an all too familiar story on our roads, particularly in rural Ireland, as Deputy Leddin outlined. While we have made remarkable progress in the field of road safety over the past 20 years and fatalities on Irish roads have reduced dramatically since we first started following a strategic approach to road safety in 1998, deaths and serious injuries among vulnerable road users remain a serious concern. The next road safety strategy, which will run from 2021 to 2030, is being prepared by the Road Safety Authority, RSA, and the programme for Government has committed to focusing the new strategy on protecting vulnerable road users, particularly pedestrians and cyclists.

As the Deputy is aware, rural roads throw up a whole different set of infrastructural and safety challenges compared with roads in more built-up, urban areas. I must make absolutely clear that the improvement and maintenance of regional and local roads is the statutory responsibility of each local authority, in accordance with the Roads Act 1993. Works on those roads, including the maintenance of traffic management systems and the responsibility for setting or amending speed limits, lies with the elected members of the relevant local authority.

The provision of footpaths and cycle lanes also falls under the responsibility of local authorities. Under the regional and local roads grants programme operated by the Department of Transport, provision has been made for local authorities to apply for funding for safety improvement works. It is the responsibility of the local authority to identify and determine the appropriateness of schemes for submission for safety improvement works. The Department also provides a range of publications to local authorities to assist them in promoting safer interaction with road users. These include the Department's updated guidelines for setting and managing speed limits across Ireland, which outline: a range of criteria relating to the setting of speed limits; the traffic management guidelines, which detail the options available to local authorities to facilitate traffic calming measures; and the traffic signs manual, which is a ministerial directive published by the Department of Transport and is the standard for signing and road marking in this country. While the provision of safer infrastructure is critical to bringing down the number of cyclist and pedestrian fatalities, it is clear that this goal cannot be met through infrastructure alone. Protecting the safety of vulnerable road users demands a multifaceted strategy to promote a greater understanding of and a mutual respect between everyone who uses the road, irrespective of the mode of transport.

As the House may recall, the previous Minister with responsibility for transport, Sir Shane Ross, introduced a new law in 2019 making it an offence for motorists to dangerously overtake cyclists. It is the intention that this law, bolstered by widespread RSA education and media campaigns, will lead to a heightened awareness of the importance of sharing road space in a respectful and considerate manner. Nowhere is this respect and awareness more important than on our network of rural roads. Deputy Leddin is correct: as the summer approaches it is so important that people can go out and enjoy our rural areas on whatever mode of transport they choose and should not have to face into these terrible challenges, with speeds reaching sinister and dangerous new levels.

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