Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. At the outset, as we approach another bank holiday weekend, I am sure everyone in this House will join in calling for people to be very conscious of driver behaviour on the roads this weekend. I will get to the Deputy's direct point in a moment.

Let me actually get to it now because I agree with the Deputy to a point. I definitely agree that road safety is not down to any one thing. If we are extraordinarily serious about road safety and reversing the worrying trend we have seen in deaths and injuries on Irish roads this year, we need to look at every lever at our disposal and every thing we can possibly do. I will come back to that in a moment.

What we also know, and I am sure the Deputy will not disagree on this, is that driver behaviour - what the RSA calls "killer behaviours" - accounts for a very significant majority of deaths and accidents on Irish roads. We need to be very conscious of that. Speed, drink driving and drug driving kills. There is the importance of wearing a seat belt. The basic things we have been trying to ingrain in Irish culture and psyche for many years are as important, if not more important, than ever. Not using a mobile phone while driving is another major one. I have met a lot of people on this issue over the last number of weeks, including the Medical Bureau of Road Safety, An Garda Síochána, the Road Safety Authority, local authorities and TII. We need to continue at every opportunity to get that message out about driver behaviours and the impact they have on road safety. I know the Deputy gets that.

I will clarify the Government's position on speed limits. In legislation the Government passed, local authorities are empowered with regard to final decisions on speed limits because I believe in local government and that local councillors will always have good and important knowledge that we perhaps would not have here in the Dáil. Speed limits and speed limit levels are important but allowing that understanding that the local authority would be pre-eminent is also quite important.

The Deputy is also right that the quality of roads, investment in roads, road repairs, road safety and working with the local guys is also very important. It is a sad state of fact that when we see accidents happen on roads we often see them happen on the same stretch of road or bend in the road - what used to be known as the accident blackspots back in the day. That is why we want to continue to invest more in safety schemes as well.

I have a list of a number of allocations the Government has made to Kerry County Council, including in 2024. Allocations of €30.14 million were received by Kerry County Council for works to be conducted under various grant types. Under safety schemes specifically, the Government has provided funding for five safety schemes. The Deputy may have referenced some of them already. They are Whitebridge, Two Mile school, Abbeydorney village, Castlegregory village, Tailor's Row and Ardfert village. We have also provided capital funding of €9.7 million, which has been allocated to the protection and renewal of the national road network in Kerry.

With regard to the specific issues and stretches of road the Deputy has raised, if he provides those details to me in the context of road safety I will also ask that the Department of Transport and TII look at them and work with Kerry County Council on these matters.

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