Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Ar an gcéad dul síos, I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this very important motion. It is an issue we have to deal with. My God, my own county was devastated last year with young deaths and we have had some this year again. This is a very important motion. There is not a simple solution. The Garda traffic corps has been decimated and we need those situations improved. We made bad decisions in investing a huge amount of money in GoSafe vans, which are only punishing people in safe areas. They will not go to accident black spots. They want to be just inside a 30 km/h, 50 km/h or 60 km/h zone, making soft money catching people. I am not condoning people breaking the speed limit. I am just saying we are investing huge money in that and not investing it in the traffic corps. At least if members of the traffic corps are on a check point or doing speed checks, they can check cars. A car with no tax, insurance or NCT and with bald tyres can pass a speed van and it will not be detected, whereas the traffic corps has the technology to detect whether a car is insured. Its members can then follow the care and can also give chase in an area if there is a robbery or something else happening. I ask the Government to invest in the traffic corps. I salute the members of the traffic corps in County Tipperary for their diligent work. I pay tribute to Ray Gilmartin who retired recently after several years' service.

As regards roads, Kilkenny County Council is the lead authority for the section of the N24 from Cahir to Waterford. I hope the Labour Party will not mind me raising this issue, which is a huge one affecting counties Kilkenny and Waterford and south Tipperary. Funding of €2 million for this year alone to enable the consultants Arup to continue its preparatory and investigatory works and bring the project to planning stage has been withdrawn. That €2 million is needed to continue this badly needed road because all those counties are affected. There were three fatalities last year and one already this year on that road. It is a death trap.

Deputy Collins mentioned a bridge. We have a bridge in Ardfinnan, which we used to call a bridge over tranquil waters. Now, it is a troubled bridge over tranquil waters. It has been one way for the past ten years. A lot of this is pure stubbornness and obstinance on the part of council officials. An Bord Pleanála held a hearing and people objected in numbers, including members of the community council, people from Ardfinnan and beyond, business people, schools and everybody else. The services would not listen to them but An Bord Pleanála did. People in Ardfinnan are being punished. All the community leaders are being punished for the people being proactive in making submissions and getting involved. Sometimes they do not get involved in public consultations but they are being punished by the council. In actual fact, an application for funding was taken off last year's list. Now we have consultant reports again. We have as much money spent on consultants on this bridge as would have built a new footbridge. A cantilever footbridge built onto the existing road bridge would cost around €1 million. There has never been a fatality on the bridge, thankfully.

Funding has been cut this year, while costs have gone up by 30%. This means we had a 50% cut in roads budgets in County Tipperary this year. I also question much of the work that has been done. Resurfacing work and everything else has been done on roads that have no foundations. We need to have a holistic examination of this. I do not blame the schools for everything but we also need to get into the schools, during transition year especially, to provide training for young drivers, cyclists and those using e-scooters. They are dangerous on the roads and we need legislation to deal with them. I have taken up cycling recently with the assistance of an e-bike, so I have experience on that side too. It is not a very safe way of travelling on the roads. You have to mind yourself and expect all other road users to mind themselves as well. Courtesy on our roads seems to be diminishing on all sides at the moment, as is respect. People should have a bit of patience and show good co-operation with others. I am thinking of schools and everything else. There is not a simple solution but it is a very good motion. It is time we looked at this but, as I said, we also need to re-examine the way we are spending our money.

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