Results 9,761-9,780 of 10,460 for speaker:Gerry Horkan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Gerry Horkan: I am not sure if anybody touched on e-scooters, which have been talked about frequently but particularly at the moment. The emphasis on the radio this morning seemed to be that e-scooters will be banned for under-16s. Is it correct to state that e-scooters are banned at the moment and that their use by anyone on public roads is illegal?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Gerry Horkan: What has the Garda been doing? People are saying that the ban relating to under-16s is going to be unenforceable. I see people almost every day when I am coming into Leinster House who are using scooters, some very responsibly and others less responsibly. Technically, however, their use is illegal. Is that correct? In other words, they are not legal.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Gerry Horkan: Is that primarily drug dealing?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Gerry Horkan: Part of antisocial behaviour would be drug dealing. What else is antisocial behaviour?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Gerry Horkan: You certainly hear of that with quad bikes, but I was not sure if scooters were in the same vein.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Gerry Horkan: Six or seven of those companies presented to the committee a couple of years ago. I will not start naming them as I will leave some of them out. They had geofencing and something like a breathalyser test before they engage. People can sign a waiver, but it is more than that. There is a sobriety test of some type. That would probably not catch drugs, but it would be for alcohol. However,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Gerry Horkan: I was going to ask about the business case for cameras. The business case is not how much revenue it will make but, rather, that the road in question has had a lot of crashes or incidents and a camera should be placed on it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Gerry Horkan: It is not a commercial business case. Coming from an accounting background, the phrase "business case" means a premises would be built in a particular place because it would make money. In this case, it is because it will save lives.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Gerry Horkan: The business case could be that ideally a camera is put in place that does not catch anybody because everyone slows down. In the short term, it could end up generating a lot of revenue, which pays for another camera.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Gerry Horkan: Completely.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Gerry Horkan: It is the impact on families.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Gerry Horkan: If the Garda place a van somewhere and detections fall massively over a couple of months, the van will be moved. I know vans are moved every day.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Gerry Horkan: A van will regularly go into an area, so for as long as there are lots of detections there, it is clear the message is not sinking in enough. Eventually, though, the numbers will drop.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Gerry Horkan: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Gerry Horkan: There are lots of roads in Dublin where there are buckets of traffic and not many accidents because the traffic is going so slowly. It does not generally lead to a lot of fatalities.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Gerry Horkan: As somebody who goes down the country a lot but is based in Dublin, I see roads down the country with an 80 km/h speed limit and there could nearly be grass growing in the middle of some of these laneways. You would not reach 80 km/h if you tried but it is technically still the speed limit. I know there are different reviews taking place on bringing those down.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Gerry Horkan: The speed limit on the Stillorgan dual carriageway, the N11, was 60 km/h while on some of these rural roads that barely let two cars pass each other it is officially 80 km/h. That seemed to me unwise at the very least. I think the speed limit review will cover a lot of that. It will bring some of those 80 km/h limits down to 50 km/h and so on. Does the Commissioner wish to raise...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Gerry Horkan: That will be great.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: An Garda Síochána (15 May 2024)

Gerry Horkan: Category W is a work vehicle. I do not know what the category is for a motorcycle. They do need a driving licence but, ultimately, they do not need any safety check of the vehicle at any frequency.