Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

When we discuss road safety, we must remember the many families that have been left devastated by the large number of tragedies and deaths on our roads, especially in the last year. In the opening weeks of 2025, the country watched in horror as 19 people on the island died in January alone. In 2024, 174 lives were lost in the Twenty-six Counties alone. Every one of those was a daughter, son, parent or friend. I express my condolences to the bereaved.

When I think of road collisions, I often think of one of the most dangerous roads in Kerry, possibly the most dangerous, the R556 road from Tralee to Abbeydorney, where there has been a number of fatalities over the last 20 years. For every person whose life is tragically cut short on our roads at least ten more people are left with serious injuries. Research by the RSA suggests that the real figure is likely to be significantly higher due to under-reporting. In 2024, there were therefore probably 1,740 children, young people and adults left with injuries serious enough to be described as life-changing. This is a particular issue in rural Ireland as 70% of collisions occur on rural roads. Many of these roads have issues and have seen multiple collisions on blind corners and junctions. Many of them are also poorly maintained.

It is worrying that Ireland is performing far more poorly than our international counterparts when it comes to road safety. The European Transport Safety Council demonstrated that 20 out of 32 countries showed a reduction in road deaths in 2023 when compared to 2019. In Ireland, there was a 32% increase during this period. The figures demonstrate that road safety must be treated with the gravity and urgency it deserves and that recent governments have failed to achieve this. Rather than making things better, their approach has made things worse. There is not enough enforcement of the rules of the road and there is too little resourcing of road improvements. There is too much focus on a one-size-fits-all approach rather than locally informed solutions. Unfortunately, there is nothing really new in the programme for Government in addition to what has already been proposed. Many of the commitments were made during the lifetime of the previous Government, and the programme for Government is devoid of detail and timelines.

The recent speed limit reductions have thrown a spotlight on road safety and, while there is no doubt that speed is a factor in road deaths and collisions and we must take the necessary steps to get people to slow down, how on earth can you expect the measure to be effective if it cannot be enforced? The lack of Garda presence on our roads is well known. There has been a 41% decrease in Garda road policing numbers in the past 15 years. In 2009, there were well over 1,000 gardaí on our roads. Now, there are 620. The programme for Government contains a vague commitment to free up more gardaí to maximise efficiency and enforcement in roads policing. It is stated in the programme for Government a few times that it is hoped to recruit 5,000 extra gardaí. However, 5,773 gardaí will become eligible to retire over the next four years. The Ministers can do the maths on that. While we undoubtedly need a stronger Garda presence on our roads, we need more gardaí everywhere at the moment and I struggle to see how the Government will free up more gardaí when there are serious shortages combined with a recruitment and retention crisis. To get more gardaí on the roads, we need to open a second Garda training college, maybe even on a short-term basis. This is the only way we will get what is sorely needed.

Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Lowry-led Independents also need to get serious about road maintenance. Many roads throughout the island are in shocking condition and the calls of local authorities and our calls to resource local authorities to carry out this work have been ignored. In Kerry, there are 625 roads on the priority list for the local improvement scheme. Due to lack of resourcing, Kerry County Council can only repair up to 20 roads per year. Under this Government and at this rate, it will be at least 25 years before the council will get to them all if funding is available, although sometimes it is not. I will also highlight the fact that local engineers spent long hours preparing documents for tender to improve the dangerous bend near Glenbeigh National School on the Ring of Kerry and the N86 from Lispole to Dingle but funding was suddenly cut without explanation. I call on the Government to restore this funding. I hope the four Government-supporting Kerry TDs ensure this takes place.

Road safety can only truly be addressed if local knowledge is prioritised and fed in. Another example is the road from Farmers Bridge to the cross at Dromavally, which is very dangerous. On the Banna side of Ardfert, since the speed limit was changed, there have been four crashes into one house over a three-year period. There has been residential development on the road and businesses have had HGVs or farm vehicles pull out onto the now 80 km/h road, which has a history of deaths and collisions. Kerry County Council says it cannot be changed back because many collisions were not logged. The Government still has not addressed the fact that the Road Safety Authority cannot share collision data with local authorities. This has been going on for seven years and must also be addressed. The Government needs to recognise that the approach is not working and to see sense to save lives.

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