Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Maybe the Minister is doing it. I will continue. I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. Bhí mé ag féachaint ar an gclog so gabhaim buíochas léi. I was speaking of the whole issue of traffic calming and cycle lanes. I have it in Tipperary now. It has become ridiculous. We had a lovely road going from Cashel to Cathair Dúin Iascaigh. My goodness, €1.5 million was spent on it. It is not about it being a carriageway so much as being for trucks or any agricultural vehicles. We live in a primarily agricultural country and there are agricultural vehicles that have to go through some towns and indeed a lot of towns. What has been done in Cashel is two cycle lanes and then the cyclists can be seen going down the middle of the road. They are on the roadway, not on the cycle lane. A whole education is needed for the cyclists as well, and I say that having taken up cycling. I am going to have a challenge with Deputy Ó Cathasaigh and his cargo bike up in Monaincha Bog very soon.

It is the same story in the village of Ardfinnan. I had a man with a silage mower trying to save a crop this year, Edmund Shine. He rang me the other night. He is a contractor employing people. He was going up the road the other night, where these works are being done, and a lorry driver came down, or a person in a car, with their fist up to him, as much as to say to him that he should not be on the road because it has been narrowed so much. It is pure, utter madness. It is unfair to agricultural vehicles, lorries or bigger people so we must have common sense here. Going into Cashel it looks lovely, but the road is so narrow now, two big trucks can hardly pass. It is as simple as that. It is a wide road with two big cycle lanes on each side, two wide footpaths and acres of green area on each side, if we take the length of it.

There is no engaging with the engineers; none whatsoever. They will not even answer the telephones. I have tried to contact the people involved with that road but they will not even answer the phone to us. This was decided by someone. It is done. It is all part of active travel and road safety. These traffic calming measures in villages are crude and I would say rude because they are never in bright colours or with luminous paint on them. In dark and wet weather you would not even see them. If you hit them, you will know all about hitting them. Traffic calming is needed and goodness knows speed is a problem, but then we have the RSA looking for extra funds. The RSA is not fit for purpose in many areas. I am straying from the Bill, but that agency is not fit for purpose regarding being involved in traffic calming-----

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