Results 21-40 of 1,674 for in 'Dáil debates' speaker:Jack Chambers

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Road Projects (29 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: I absolutely agree with the Deputy. There is a key safety component to this, in addition to the wider issues around the social, economic and community infrastructure. We appreciate the Deputy raising this, and the Government is fully committed to restoring our road networks after the impact of this storm. The vast interconnected network is used by cars, buses, trucks, vans and cyclists,...

Road Traffic Bill 2024: Referral to Select Committee (13 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: I move: That the Bill be referred to the Select Committee on Transport and Communications pursuant to Standing Orders 95 and 181.

Road Traffic Bill 2024: Second Stage (13 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: I appreciate the contributions from across the House. Deputy Gould had some constructive suggestions. I will set out initially what we are doing in the Bill because a lot was stated around a lot of other reforms but it is important to set out the context again. We are reforming the penalty point system to target multiple offences in one act. It is a progressive reform. It targets those...

Road Traffic Bill 2024: Second Stage (13 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: It is.

Road Traffic Bill 2024: Second Stage (13 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: No.

Road Traffic Bill 2024: Second Stage (13 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." Today, I will bring the Road Traffic Bill 2024 before the House. This Bill is an urgent and essential part of the Government's response to the concerning trend of rising road fatalities and serious injuries. This is a short and focused Bill that aims to effectively address issues with driver behaviours through legislative change. Last...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Road Safety (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: There is guidance given to engineers on traffic-calming measures. We are all constituency TDs. I support many traffic-calming interventions in urbanised areas, particularly around schools and in villages and towns. In addition, where there is an inappropriate speed limit, it sets the context for motorists travelling through a village or town. That is why we have to set a lower default...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Road Safety (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: On the wider point I mentioned to others earlier, there is a need to improve enforcement and policing across the country. That is a key priority in our engagement with An Garda Síochána.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Road Safety (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: I support traffic-calming measures in towns and villages. It is a local authority function to implement traffic-calming measures in addition to changing the default speed limit in urbanised environments.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Road Safety (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: A key objective of the speed limit review is to align speed limits with the safe system approach to managing safety on the road network. The safe system approach is a means of managing and developing the road network so that, by design, it is forgiving of human error and mitigates serious collisions. In response to the upward trend in road deaths in recent years, we sought Government...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Road Safety (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: Many of the HGVs and much of the logistics network use the motorway system and national primary roads, on which, as I said, the limits will remain as they are. They have a higher engineering standard compared with some of the other roads. It is important to have a lower baseline in highly urbanised areas, villages and towns where there are schools and vulnerable road users are at risk. We...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Dublin Airport Authority (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. Dublin Airport Authority has statutory responsibility for the management, operation and development of Dublin Airport. The cap of 32 million passengers per annum currently in place at the airport is a condition attached to the planning permission granted for Terminal 2. The condition was put in place principally to limit the amount of traffic...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Dublin Airport Authority (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: As I stated in my previous response, they provided the methodology in how the passenger cap is calculated and its enumeration. The total number of number passengers that passed through the terminals was 31.9 million, in excess of 1 million connecting passengers use the airport terminals and more than 500,000 included transit passengers did not leave the plane or were search-and-rescue and...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Dublin Airport Authority (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: The matters relating to enforcement of a planning decision are a matter for Fingal County Council, as the relevant planning authority. They will assess the methodology used in the enumeration of passengers. As I have said, if one reads the planning condition, it relates to pressure on infrastructure roads and public transport. Dublin Airport and, indeed, the wider economic approach will...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Road Safety (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: 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...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Road Safety (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: 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...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Road Safety (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: 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...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Road Safety (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: 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...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Road Safety (1 Feb 2024)

Jack Chambers: 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...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Hospital Overcrowding (23 Jan 2024)

Jack Chambers: I acknowledge the concerns of the local community and the pressures on the staff. Significant resources are being invested in University Hospital Limerick, which has seen an increase in the workforce of more than 160 whole-time equivalents since the end of 2019. Safer staffing levels for ED nursing staff have been reviewed and national approval was received to recruit additional staff...