Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On Monday evening, a young man in my constituency was seriously injured in a motorbike accident. At the moment, he is in a critical condition. Our thoughts are with him and his family at this time. He, unfortunately, is just one of a number of people, especially young people, who have been involved in serious road accidents in my constituency. There are a number of reasons for this. A northern ring road was promised more than 25 or maybe 30 years ago but it still has not been developed, and now there is a situation where articulated trucks, heavy goods vehicles and traffic are going through residential areas that were never designed for them. When will this Government commit to delivering a northern ring road for Cork city?

The northern relief road in Mallow also needs to be completed. When will the Government fund that? There is a stretch of road between Cork and Limerick on which people have died and where there are known black spots. Driving through them today, they are as dangerous as they were ten or 20 years ago. I know the Government is developing the Cork to Limerick road but we need urgent action to be taken to protect people.

There is another thing I want to the Minister of State to know. Cork city is losing one garda per week. In a five-week period in February and March, we lost five gardaí. In the first three months of this year, Cork city lost 31 gardaí. How will we manage to patrol the roads and have a deterrent if we do not have the gardaí numbers to do so?

There is more that can be done in legislation. Four years ago, Kimberly O’Connor, a young lady who was really a child, passed away. I have asked the Minister time and time again to ban the sale of company cars to young people. These are cars that have no NCT, insurance or tax and are being sold to young people. I believe this is being done illegally and the Government needs to move on this.

Finally, the footpaths in our constituency are a disgrace. Some €12 million has been paid in compensation in a period of five years between Cork city and county councils.

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