Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Our current approach to road planning prioritises the supremacy of cars over the safety of pedestrians. It is time to turn this approach on its head. It is no secret that Irish roads were and still are designed with cars in mind, often at the expense of pedestrian safety. In the first seven months of last year, there were 113 road fatalities nationwide and a third of those victims were under the age of 26 years. I mention the number of hit-and-run incidents we are seeing, which I understand accounted for 10% of serious crashes in the last two months. I think of the families of Joe Drennan and Shane O’Farrell, who are still fighting for justice for their family members. This is an area we need to focus on. There seem to be more hit-and-run incidents than I can ever remember hearing reported. I would appreciate the Minister of State looking into the matter in detail.

I welcome the new speed limits introduced last week but speed limits alone are not enough. We need proper enforcement with sufficient Garda numbers and well-maintained infrastructure to ensure safety on our roads. One of the major challenges we face is the lack of adequate funding for councils to implement necessary safety measures. Simple measures like road markings and traffic lights can take years to introduce because councils are waiting on specific funding streams. This delay puts lives at risk and undermines any efforts to create safer roads. If councils had access to more funding for road infrastructure, they could proactively address safety concerns rather than reactively respond to incidents.

I will highlight a specific area of my constituency, namely, the town of Glenealy where there is speeding of often dangerous levels on the main street right beside a primary school. There is a lack of road markings, ramps and pedestrian crossings, all of which exacerbate the problem. This puts residents and visitors at risk. Wicklow County Council says it does not have the money to upgrade these roads so we can see clearly how the gap between the safety needs of a community and the funding provided to the councils is causing many difficulties and safety concerns in communities across the country.

I wish to focus on the issue of getting our children safely to school. Surely the most basic thing we should be providing is a safe route for children to walk to school. That is not the case, however. In my county we have a lot of narrow roads, uneven surfacing and potholes. We are heavily dependent on cars and many of our schools are on rural roads that do not even have footpaths. I welcomed the Safe Routes to School initiative launched in 2021, but the speed of the roll-out of these programmes is far too slow. In 2021, three schools in Wicklow were part of phase 1 of the initiative. They were only connected in 2024. Considering those projects really consisted of putting up bollards, changing the colours of the road markings and putting up signage, it seems a very long delay for a simple project that is so important for the safety of our children. We have over 100 schools in Wicklow, so at that rate it will take many decades to connect them all through the Safe Routes to School programme. That is something we need to focus on. As has been mentioned, there is a bureaucratic gap or barriers in place in that schools must apply to be part of the programme and then be assessed, following which the application goes to the council. There are so many different steps involved when it is often very apparent to the council engineers what the problems are and which schools and routes need to be made safer. Having those bureaucratic steps is just adding long timeframes to these especially crucial projects that are needed in a far more timely manner.

We need to redirect our approach to road safety by prioritising pedestrians and ensuring the safety of all road users. This requires adequate funding, effective enforcement of speed laws and a commitment to creating safe pathways for children. The year-on-year increase in road fatalities is a stark reminder of the work that needs to be done. If our roads are safe for our children, they are safe for everyone. I would like the Minister of State to keep that in mind.

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