Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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53. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will provide an update on his Department's work on road safety, and his plans to tackle the continuing rise in road fatalities. [22230/24]

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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I want to get an update on the Department's work on road safety and the continued tragedy we have on our roads, with so many fatalities. Another man passed away last night after an incident in County Donegal. Too many families around the country are losing their loved ones and suffering the tragedies of road collisions and accidents. People are dealing with terrible injuries. We have been speaking in this House for a long time about issues regarding enforcement, technology and trying to get a grip of this but we seem to be making little progress.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I would like to express my sincere condolences to the friends and families of those who have lost their lives on our roads this year. As Minister of State with responsibility for road safety, I have been working with the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, my officials, the transport agencies and across government to reverse the current trend and stop the level of fatalities on our roads.

The Government has set a target of halving road deaths and serious injuries by the end of this decade. As things stand, we are not on course to meet this target, and there are worrying indications in the research that driver behaviour has significantly worsened since the pandemic. Attitudes to drink-driving are becoming more permissive, drug-driving is on the rise and mobile phone use is a significant contributor to collisions.

As part of our response, I brought forward the Road Traffic Act 2024, which was signed into law by the President last month. This was priority legislation initiated late last year, and I would like to thank Members, including the Deputy, for their constructive input and helping the expeditious passing of the legislation. The Act seeks to bring about targeted and systemic change in three key areas linked to driver behaviour. First, in response to the increase in drug-driving, the Act introduces mandatory drug testing at the scene of a collision on the same basis as alcohol, rather than an optional test. Second, to help tackle the issue of excessive speed, the Act legislates for safer default speed limits on urban, national secondary and rural, local roads. Third, to enhance the deterrent effect of penalty points, the Act ensures that drivers committing multiple penalty point offences will receive multiple penalty points.

We are all working, in the Department and with the road safety partner agencies and local authorities, towards the wider implementation of these provisions and other important actions in the Government's road safety strategy.

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State. I am aware of that legislation and its passage. I would like clarity regarding the regulations for local authorities. I understand that local authorities will have a major role here, particularly in working out what speed limits are appropriate for particular stretches of road. Many of them are too high and need to come down but many of them may be quite appropriate. It is a sort of a one-size-fits-all Act. That is understandable in one sense but it is not understandable when we get to the practical reality on the ground. Members of our local authorities, who face an election in the next couple of weeks, need to have the power to regulate that and make sure it works out.

I also want to bring the Minister of State's attention to the GoSafe vans, which are somewhat of a privatisation of our policing service. However, they have a role to play. At yesterday's transport committee meeting, Assistant Commissioner Paula Hilman informed us that GoSafe vans have the ability to pick up people who are not using their seat belts, who are using mobile phones and so on, but they cannot use this particular technology because the Departments of Transport and Justice have not yet provided a legal basis to do so. While legislation is happening on one side, in terms of things that actually can make a difference we have massive delays in implementation. When can the legislation be in place to ensure the camera systems that are installed will detect very dangerous behaviour and distracted driving, particularly use of mobile phones and non-wearing of seat belts?

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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On speed limits, there has been notification to local authorities of the legislative changes. Guidance is being finalised and will be issued to local authorities in the coming weeks. As new councillors are elected, that will commence quickly with a view to getting the wider implementation of the speed limits. As the Deputy said, it is about local authorities and councillors working together in the context of the legislation and the guidance, but also using their reserved function relating to local roads. We have previously engaged on that. It is about ensuring that we have a safer default baseline. Councils will then examine each road on an individual basis. That is how the speed limit process will work in respect of local authorities.

A camera-based enforcement strategy group was established in the context of the wider use of camera technology. We are working with An Garda Síochána and the other transport agencies on the wider strategy that is required but also any further legislative changes that may be required in the context of additional levels of enforcement. That work is continuing.

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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That is okay, but I did not hear from the Minister of State as to when the legislation will be implemented to ensure that the capabilities of these cameras can actually be used for something that will make a big difference. We hope to tease that out further in the future.

The Minister recently informed the media that red light cameras, for motorists who run red lights, will be up and going but now we understand they will be only be deployed in two locations in Dublin. They were piloted in 2015. Again, this is due to a failure to provide a legal basis for their use. I would like to understand why we are always trying to catch up to technology rather than having the legal provisions in place to ensure it can be used properly in a way that will work. We also have a similar issue in respect of the GDPR, which is preventing the RSA from sharing collision data with local engineers and local authorities when they are planning to put safety measures in place. What progress has been made on ensuring that those two issues will be dealt with quickly? We are in an emergency situation here. We have hundreds of people being killed and injured on our roads and we need to get grips of this issue. If we do not do it, more and more families are going to be tragically affected by all of this.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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Section 81 of the Road Traffic Act 2010 provides for the use of cameras by the Garda to assist in the detection of certain offences. The powers have been used by Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, working with the Garda. It is open to road authorities to use these powers on a similar basis for other offences. As part of our wider camera-based enforcement strategy, we want to have many more locations in urban and other areas. In particular, given our investment in public transport infrastructure, we want to ensure there is much greater compliance for public transport but also for those who are constantly breaching the law when it comes to bus lanes and other breaches of our road traffic legislation.

On the collision data, significant road safety interventions continue to be funded by the Department with key agencies.

There is ongoing engagement with and a submission being made to the Data Protection Commissioner to ensure we can find progress on the data issues the Deputy referred to. We are committed to addressing these obstacles and we are working with An Garda Síochána and the Road Safety Authority, RSA, to ensure there is compliance in the context of the GDPR issues highlighted.

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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Again, it is wait and see. We really need to see progress being made on all these issues and we have not.

Cathal Berry (Kildare South, Independent)
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The Deputy has had his last slot to respond to this question. We are moving on to the next question.

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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Go raibh maith agat.