Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are many aspects to road safety. The condition of our roads is one of them, but much more important are driver behaviour, enforcement, safety of vehicles and so on. We need to attack the issue of road safety from all different angles. I will be chairing a ministerial meeting on road safety tomorrow. I think it is the first time any Taoiseach has chaired a meeting of Ministers on road safety in a very long time - perhaps more than ten or 12 years. I am really bothered about the increase in road deaths this year. I want to make sure that the eyes of my office are on it and that everyone in government, including the Department of Transport, does their bit when it comes to making sure people are safe on our roads.

I will be working with the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, to increase the roads budget for Cork and every other county. I only spoke to him about it yesterday. Central government is not the only source of funding for local and regional roads. There is also the local property tax, commercial rates and the various levies and charges that councils impose. Local authorities have more discretion than they make out when it comes to how much they invest in the roads, with some putting almost nothing in and some putting in quite a lot.

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