Peter Cleere (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to address the House on road safety. Ireland has made significant progress over the lifetime of previous road safety strategies. Since the launch of the first strategy in 1998, road deaths have declined by 70%, but we must not give up the hard work. There is no time for complacency. I welcome this Government's focus, energy and commitment to road safety.

Previous speakers have said, and I totally concur, that every citizen in this country is entitled to feel safe on our roads. We all must play our part collectively in that. In 2024, there were 175 deaths on our roads. That is 175 families destroyed. Sadly, 16 people have lost their lives on our roads this year. It is so devastating for the families and communities in which this happens. It was mentioned previously about enforcement and road conditions as being the two biggest drivers. The four main causes of death on our roads, however, are speeding, distracted road use, not wearing a seat belt and intoxicated driving. While all the measures are there, the number one common denominator in all of this is personal responsibility. That is key to helping road safety throughout the country.

My constituency of Carlow-Kilkenny is mostly rural, with 80% of people living in rural areas and 20% in urban areas. It is essential all communities are kept safe on our roads. I am thinking of rural towns and villages like Windgap, Kells, Stoneyford, Dunnamaggin, Hugginstown, Ballinkillen, Myshall, Glynn and St. Mullin's. All of these towns and villages need to be made safe. What is crucial in helping to keep our roads safe is that we need significant increased investment in our road network to ensure the safety of our citizens.

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The road projects will be announced shortly and I welcome the significant increase in road investment, which will help local authorities around the country. A significant upgrade in pedestrian and cycling infrastructure on roads through active travel schemes is needed throughout the country. We need to protect vulnerable road users.

One measure that has been really beneficial, which I have seen it in my own village of Graiguenamanagh, is the safe routes to school programme. We need to see greater urgency and investment in safe routes to school because we have to keep our children safe. It has had a massively positive impact in Graiguenamanagh and I would welcome many more towns and villages around the country and my constituency benefiting from it as well. The low cost safety scheme has worked well in rural Ireland, including in my constituency of Carlow-Kilkenny. This scheme makes a phenomenal difference, especially in places around the country that might not be as busy in terms of road user numbers but have black spots. We need to see a significant investment in low cost safety schemes. Local authorities are best placed to identify these schemes need to be carried out but we need more schemes every year because they make a difference. We are going to have an additional 5,000 gardaí coming on board and that increased visibility in terms of resources under road policy is really important. While personal responsibility is very important, enforcement has to be undertaken to back it up as well.

The new speed limits were mentioned earlier. We all have a responsibility as road users to drive at a safe speed. Depending on factors such as traffic and weather, that could be well below the maximum permitted speed limit on a road. Between 2020 and 2024, three in every four road deaths occurred on a rural road. What is really important here is that while national default speed limits are set in law, every local authority has the final say on speed limits on each individual road in its area, thus they may leave these limits either at the default or apply other speed limits via special speed limit bylaws. It is very important to acknowledge and recognise that.

Three key projects in my constituency, both from an infrastructural perspective and from a safety perspective, need particular attention. One is the Kilkenny northern ring road. It is a particular piece of infrastructure that will benefit the city of Kilkenny as well as all its users. It will make it safer for pedestrians, cyclists and road users alike. There is also the N25, which has been stalled and needs to be reignited and funded. The N24 again needs funding for the final stage to be completed and to get the bypass in Mooncoin finished as well as all those roads made safer.

A lot of work has been done around road safety but there is an awful lot more work to do and we need to do it together.

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