Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We do not have much time on this.

The RSA is not fit for purpose, nor is TII. They are too rigid and there is too much bureaucracy. We are trying to have speed limits reduced at dangerous junctions. We are supposed to have got rid of the NRA but I do not believe we have. We decommissioned the IRA and we are stuck with the NRA. It is impossible to talk to and will not listen to politicians or anybody.

I come from Tipperary where we had a horrific year last year. It was so sad that we lost so many young lives. It is happening all over the country and is being repeated this year.

The Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, has had a knee-jerk reaction. It is the Minister of State's action, though everyone is blaming the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan. This folly of bringing speed limits on regional roads down to 80 km/h is madness. It will cause more accidents. It is a knee-jerk, stupid position to take. Some of the speed limits are at 80 km/h already and will go down to 60 km/h. That will have a massive impact on infrastructure and transport too. It is a knee-jerk reaction and a headline with no proper science behind it.

There is also the fact that the traffic corps has been depleted. I want to support Sergeant Padraig Walsh in Cahir with his traffic corps team, Kevin McGuinness and others. Garda John Walsh, our local garda, is out on the road every day doing checkpoints. The Commissioner made an announcement last week that all gardaí are going to do half an hour of roads policing per shift. What about all of the gardaí who are stuck in the courts every day or on prisoner escort duties?

The Government is playing with people's lives here. I do not want to say the Minister of State is not fit for purpose but this scheme he is bringing in is not. He will go down in history for bringing regional roads almost to a standstill. I have no problem with speed limits on rural roads being brought down from 80 km/h to 50 km/h. They should never have been at 80 km/h but what the Minister of State is doing is sheer and utter madness. He needs to educate himself by driving down some of the boreens and roads to see the damage that will do.

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