Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We have all been shocked by the recent loss of lives on our roads. I want to express my condolences to the families around the country and in my own county of Carlow for the loss of their loved ones this year. There really has been a worrying increase in road fatalities this year, after many years of progress in making our roads safer.

I welcome the review of speed limits around the country, which may see recommendations to lower speed limits in dangerous areas. I know we all see this in our daily lives when we go on the road, particularly if we are on a dual carriageway. We all have to be very mindful. When we are talking about these speed limits and reducing them, which is welcome, who will enforce them and what is the timescale?

While roadside testing is an operational matter for An Garda Síochána, we must all work together to focus on high-risk behaviour, with the key objective of reducing the number of serious injuries, collisions and fatalities on our roads. There have been numerous changes to legislation governing driving under the influence in recent years, which have increased the penalties and lowered the limits for driving under the influence. However, we must do more in our education and enforcement campaigns into the future to raise awareness and further decrease driving under the influence of alcohol or any other substance.

Road traffic legislation is enforced as part of the day-to-day duties of all members of An Garda Síochána. I know that funding of €2.3 billion was allocated to them in the budget this year but we have to increase its resources. Two stations in Carlow - Tullow and Bagenalstown - do not operate on a 24-hour basis. They need Garda numbers sufficient to operate as a 24-hour station. I am still waiting on the one in Leighlinbridge to be reopened. Again, there is no community crime prevention officer in Carlow. These are measures that need to be looked at. It would mean that additional gardaí would become available to be deployed to priority areas. They are all great for the work they do. However, roads policing really needs to be addressed. I know that the first thing I will hear back is, "Well, that is not within our remit", but I believe it is. We need to put more money into our gardaí. We need to have gardaí more visible, particularly on our roads when we see these accidents happening.

Other speakers have spoken about flash flooding. I have seen it in the last few months when we have had so much rain due to climate change. Even now on our roads, flash flooding is going to become a very serious issue and will play a huge part in accidents if we do not do something about it.

Again in my own area, I see e-scooters on roads and footpaths in town centres. It is becoming a huge issue, and we have had some fatalities with regard to this.

While I am really delighted that Carlow is a university town, that brings its challenges. It is great to see us being a university town and county but if one has schools near a university, which we have, particularly a primary school, that needs to be accompanied by funding for primary children going into schools. There are issues now because of all the extra traffic that is coming into town. Again, I call for urgent funding for our southern relief road. While Carlow town is doing really well and it is great to see it, we need to invest in the southern relief road. I know it is on the capital plan but we need to get that done as urgently as possible.

There is another area that comes across as well, and I find it hard to believe that we cannot get any funding for it. I am glad that the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is coming into the Chamber shortly. We see in Carlow and in government that everyone is promoting car-pooling as a climate change measure. We are saying "do not have too many cars on the road" and "we all need to work together". When I am coming to Dublin every day, just before I swing off to go on the main Dublin road as I leave Carlow, I could meet 20 cars on the side of the road barely pulled in. We cannot get money to develop a proper place where those people could park their cars. We cannot get money because the Government is telling me there is no money for it. We need to look at the things that can enable road safety. We are encouraging car pooling and encouraging people to travel together, yet when one applies for funding under the Government grants, one cannot get any funding for that.

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