Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising the very serious issue of road safety. We have all been shocked by the recent loss of life on our roads and concerned by the worrying increase in road fatalities. Some 188 road fatalities occurred in 2023. As of 11 July 2024, there have been 101 such fatalities, which is up by approximately 14 on the same period last year. We need a multifaceted response. We had far worse figures in the past. When Noel Dempsey was Minister with responsibility for this area, he set in train a dramatic series of proposals, with the establishment of the Road Safety Authority, which was chaired by the late Gay Byrne. It brought about a radical reduction in the loss of lives and rate of injury on our roads. The lesson from that is we can do it. If we rededicate ourselves and act proactively legislatively on the deterrents the Deputy suggested, and properly understand what is going on at present, we can deal with this and can get these numbers down. He mentioned speed, drink, drugs and behaviour. Those are issues that have to be tackled.

The Road Traffic Act 2024 was signed into law on 17 April. It dealt with three main issues: penalty point system reform; mandatory drug testing at the scene of serious collisions, which began on 31 May ahead of the June bank holiday; and the implementation of safer default speed limits as recommended by the speed limit review. It is expected that those measures will be introduced on local roads later this year. One of the challenges with road safety legislation and initiatives is, very often, they meet criticism or opposition on the ground. This has always been the challenge. We have to be very determined as a society about having to reduce the number of people, including children, being killed on our roads.

The development of the national road safety camera strategy will be an important step towards road safety. As part of the budget, funding has been made available for the GoSafe speed cameras, continuing the increased level of 9,000 hours of monitoring a month throughout the whole of 2024.

We all have a stake in this as citizens. We all have to watch our own behaviour. The uniformed members of An Garda Síochána now all carry out 30 minutes of high-visibility roads policing per shift. Last May, the Garda officially launched a system for identifying uninsured vehicles by scanning or entering the vehicle registration on the Garda mobility device. We will significantly increase spending on public awareness. Communication by the Road Safety Authority, as the Deputy said, is necessary. We will continue to support the authority. The forthcoming Estimates will reflect that.

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