Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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1. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he can outline what measures are being taken to improve road safety, including those related to road maintenance and upgrade works expected on road projects as part of the national development plan. [4818/24]

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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This is quite a difficult morning for people in Carlow. Three people were killed on the road last night. Last year we had record numbers of deaths on our roads. In January we saw so many families unfortunately being ravaged by the tragedy of road deaths. We have spoken on this on many occasions. I know some proposals have come forward for measures in regard to road safety but clearly they are not working. We need a redoubling of efforts to ensure we make our roads safer for everyone to use.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I share the Deputy's sympathies with the families of the three people who were killed in Carlow overnight.

Published in December 2021, the Government’s road safety strategy for 2021 to 2030 has the target of reducing road deaths and serious injuries by 50% this decade. It is underpinned by the Vision Zero policy. Vision Zero has been adopted across the EU and aims to eliminate deaths and serious injuries on our roads. The second annual review of the road safety strategy took place on 18 January, where a wide range of road safety stakeholders considered progress to date and what we can prioritise to have an impact in 2024. Specific priorities for the coming months include the development of a national strategy for camera-based enforcement, addressing the multiple learner permit issue and improving many of the road safety education initiatives.

Work has commenced on implementing the recommendations of the speed limit review, published last September. Updated guidelines for local authorities are expected to be concluded this quarter and the safer default speed limits called for by the review will be legislated for by the Road Traffic Bill 2024, which will be coming before the Dáil in the next couple of weeks. This is a concise Bill focused on key road safety issues, and in addition to legislating for safer default speed limits, it will also introduce mandatory drug testing at the scene of serious traffic collisions and reform the penalty points system so motorists receive multiple sets of penalty points where multiple offences are committed.

The delivery of a national roads network that is safe and robust is a key priority of Government. As part of the national development plan, a number of new roads projects are being developed, which in many cases replace existing roads with a poor safety rating. An example of such a road is the N22 Ballyvourney to Macroom project. Furthermore, TII’s protection and renewal programme for existing roads has safety as a primary focus. This funds vital work including minor upgrades to realign roads at dangerous bends, and pavement repair.

It is also important to emphasise that road traffic legislation is enforced as part of the day-to-day duties of all members of An Garda Síochána. Road safety is a foremost priority for me. It is important that we strengthen the number of road safety initiatives this year.

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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The difficulty here is that we do not believe that the projects you are putting forward are actually working and delivering. In The Irish Timesthis week we have seen a report that the Department of Transport wrote to the RSA in 2023 and asked for a plan in regard to enhanced road safety. It came back with that plan and the RSA looked for funding of €6 million to roll it out. The Department of Transport said no, we are not going to do that. Unless we back these things up with actual funding to deliver them, there is no point in talking about them. We have all of this talk of reduced speed limits and all of that, which may be very worthy and I am sure in many cases are the logical thing to do, but the biggest problem we have got is enforcement. If we do not enhance enforcement, we cannot keep bringing in new laws and nothing there to make people abide by them. In September in the Irish ExaminerConor Faughnan, the CEO of Royal Irish Automobile Club, said that the most important thing is enforcement. That is identified internationally yet the Government continues to fail on it.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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What you failed to mention in your contribution was that the Road Safety Authority sought additional allocation for additional initiatives. It has significant reserves as an agency and it was then permitted to spend €5.6 million in additional campaigns to underpin additional initiatives. You did not give the full picture in your contribution. Also, you dismissed reducing speed limits when you said “speed limits and all of that”. It is not “all of that.” It is a core part of protecting vulnerable road users.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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Only if you have gardaí.

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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I did not dismiss it.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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It has a significant evidence base. If Sinn Féin is going to play a populist line on speed limits, I ask you to get behind the actual evidence and support that initiative in the Oireachtas rather than trying to divide opinion. When it comes to the issue of enforcement, yes, it needs to improve and yes, the Garda does need to provide additional prioritization of enforcement in the context of their overall numbers. We have significant recruitment happening this year and there should be a roads policing dividend from that. Also, the camera-based enforcement strategy which we are working on aims to advance the technological opportunities that exist for better camera-based enforcement to complement the work of the roads policing unit. That is something we are keen to advance as well. Enforcement does need to improve to underpin the wider reforms that we are trying to advance.

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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The roads policing unit the Minister of State is talking about has had its numbers cut consecutively every year for the past ten years. Bringing in new laws to reduce speed is welcome and appropriate on many roads. There is no problem with that; nobody is saying otherwise. Nobody is disagreeing with the Minister of State there. The problem is that on most roads there are no gardaí to enforce the limits. That is the reality around most parts of the country. The Minister of State knows that as well as I do. People see all of this being rolled out by the Government. The Minister of State had a previous proposal to have different levels of penalty points for weekdays rather than weekends and had to withdraw it. I said at the time that it was not going to work and that we needed to have prelegislative scrutiny but the Minister of State refused to do that. It was clear to me and to any logical person that we cannot have one law for one day of the week and a different law for another. The Minister of State had to pull back from that. Now he is telling us that the measures he is putting in place are going to work. We do not see the investment. We do not see the numbers in roads policing being put in place to do that.

We also have a huge problem in the country of accident blackspots on very dangerous bends, dangerous corners and difficult situations that need to be resolved. Local authorities are looking for funding and they are continually banging their heads off a brick wall and not getting adequate funding to deliver them. We have pinch points in many areas of the country where these accidents continue to happen, yet the Government continues to ignore it.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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That is not true. There is a lot of work between local authorities and Transport Infrastructure Ireland on investing in specific dangerous junctions. There is a work programme around that where there are improvements on certain roads. TII will set out further information on that. The legislation we are trying to advance has a core evidence base, addressing speed limits and anomalies around penalty points.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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Enforcement.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I take the wider concern from the Deputy, others and certainly the victims' organisations on the need to improve enforcement. That is something I raise at every meeting I have with An Garda Síochána and senior management in An Garda Síochána. We do need to see enforcement improve and we need to see the numbers in roads policing units improve. I am not dismissing that point. It is an absolute priority for me. If the reforms we are going to progress, along with existing legislation and policy, are going to have a further effect, we need to see strengthening of enforcement from a roads policing and road safety perspective. I am not at all dismissing that as a necessity to address the wider behavioural issues we are seeing on our roads and the culture of recklessness which exists among certain cohorts of drivers.

There needs to be a robust enforcement response and I am absolutely clear about that in all my engagements with An Garda Síochána. I am not dismissing that point.