Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As we strive and succeed in reducing deaths by diseases such as heart failure and cancer, we deploy ever more technology and research into new medicines and procedures with the objective of prolonging life. We are going in the other direction when it comes to deaths and injuries on our roads. Road traffic accidents happen in an instant. Vibrant and healthy individuals with full lives to live and ambitions to fulfil are taken from us in a moment and leave devastation and unimaginable grief. We must apply the same analysis, vigour and determination to reducing this heartbreak as we devote to tackling diseases and chronic illness. There must be a co-ordination, a focus of resources and a clear strategy that addresses the causes of road traffic accidents. There must be enforcement, safe road engineering, education and safety awareness and campaigning, and clear modalities for co-operation between agencies and data sharing with all involved.

On enforcement, the notion that we have privatised the Gatso vans is a frustration. I drive on the M11 to County Wexford. Between Dublin and the new motorway, there are four different speed limits depending on what part of the road you are on. It is annoying to see a Gatso van parked 500 m before the new motorway, with no other objective than to capture and frustrate people, when you are on a motorway quality road, which is a dual carriageway. They must be deployed where there are real accidents, and I want the Minister to address that issue. I want him to fundamentally focus on one area, which is the condition of roads, junctions and footpaths in an area I know best, County Wexford. The motion before the House spells out what needs to be done. There needs to be a comprehensive and clear public plan to identify every dangerous junction, potholed road, broken and dangerous footpath and cycleway, and to fix them. We have the resources and the capacity to fix them. This would not only enormously contribute to reducing serious accidents, but countless minor accidents causing pedestrians to fall and cyclists to be knocked off their bicycles. Exhorting and encouraging safe driving is important, but the State must step up to the plate and do its part in giving us safe roads.

In County Wexford we have 3,522 km of non-national roads, which are regional and county roads. Some 45% of Wexford's non-national roads now require reconstruction. The national average is 15%. The surface dressing cycle in my home county is every 33 years. The recommended cycle before the impact of recent climate change was ten years. I am interested in the Minister of State's speech. Wexford devotes more of its own resources to resurfacing than most counties. More than 30% of the total spend for fixing these roads comes from its own resources. It is not true that account is taken of how much counties pony up themselves. Nor is State support uniform throughout the country. Departmental grants for this purpose range from €4.80 per mile to €9.60 per mile in the allocations made last year. If there is a formula, it is certainly not based on miles of road and there has to be an explanation for this.

There are specific works I want to mention in the minute I have left. Larkin's Cross on the N25 is a main road from Rosslare to Waterford and the west. It is a dangerous junction. Kyle Cross junction is on the N11. As the Minister of State knows, the motorway ends in Oylegate and all of the southbound traffic going to Rosslare and Wexford must cross this dangerous intersection. A few kilometres further on is Ferrycarrig bridge, which is another highly dangerous and hugely trafficked junction. There is a dangerous series of bends on the main Enniscorthy to New Ross road and the N30 outside Clonroche school. These are four of the many I could instance that can be fixed. We can contribute and the Government must contribute to solving this dangerous situation.

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