Results 1-20 of 263 for garda speaker:Martin Kenny

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (21 May 2024)

Martin Kenny: ...The two main contributors to this terrible statistic are driving under the influence and speed. We have seen the advertisements and the campaigns and we know there are an additional 30 minutes of Garda checkpoints. However, we cannot hope to tackle this issue without a multi-agency approach. Our local authorities are tasked with the design and maintenance of the vast majority of our...

Road Safety and Maintenance: Motion [Private Members] (15 May 2024)

Martin Kenny: ...has been a major factor in a lot of these collisions and a lot of that speeding is happening because of intoxication, the use of drugs and all so on. We need greater enforcement and we need more gardaí out enforcing the rules of the road to ensure people obey them properly. That will only happen if we have the gardaí with the blue light flashing. The GoSafe van is fine and it...

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

Martin Kenny: ...this problem. Enforcement is a part of it, but it is not all of it. We need to acknowledge that. However, we want to focus on that aspect in light of the fact that the representatives from An Garda Síochána are before us today. The Commissioner mentioned that an additional 75 gardaí will be recruited to the road policing unit this year and that the competitions in this...

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

Martin Kenny: Is that to meet the additional numbers the force is seeking? Obviously, a number of gardaí will retire as well. When the 75 recruits come in, how many corresponding officers will be lost to retirement or whatever? Is An Garda Síochána running to stand still?

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

Martin Kenny: Okay. I would like to mention another issue that has come up. Every time there is an incident on the roads, we hear gardaí appealing for dashcam footage to be uploaded or sent to them. There are two sides to that. First, the number of Garda vehicles that have dashcams is an issue. I know that the new vehicles which are being purchased have dashcams. Is any effort being made to...

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

Martin Kenny: ...the expansion of hours for the GoSafe vans. That is fine, but I have always regarded them as one-trick ponies, unfortunately. They watch one thing and that is speed whereas a member of An Garda Síochána monitoring traffic monitors everything. If there are people moving drugs, travelling in a stolen car, stealing farm machinery or up to anything, gardaí can monitor that....

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

Martin Kenny: ...I am thinking of the slick barrister – we have a few of them in Leinster House – who can talk his or her way around that. I am not referring to anyone on this committee, thankfully. Has the Garda gone through enough prosecution cases yet to be able to determine where the difficulties arise?

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings: Motion [Private Members] (14 May 2024)

Martin Kenny: ...That is something this Government must recognise and acknowledge. If the British military intelligence services had such influence on loyalists at that time, when we look at what happened with the Garda investigation and the actions in this State, we must wonder whether they also had influence here, and if that is part of the reasons for all of this. The families and their...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues Relating to Road Safety: Road Safety Authority (24 Apr 2024)

Martin Kenny: ...the biggest impact on offending and on people breaking the rules of the road, etc, is mentioned in the RSA's report. That is one of the key issues all of us have been talking about. The level of Garda enforcement is also one of the key issues. While I understand the GoSafe vans have a role to play, we have become too dependent on them as the main factor in detecting speeding, in...

Road Safety: Statements (17 Apr 2024)

Martin Kenny: ...acknowledged. One of the difficulties in this regard is that the roads policing units have not been at or near the full complement. The Minister of State has acknowledged this fact as well. The Garda Commissioner has announced that gardaí will have to spend half an hour in each shift doing roads policing. When I speak to gardaí most of them tell me that they do that anyway...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Anti-Social Behaviour on Public Transport: Discussion (17 Apr 2024)

Martin Kenny: ...in that context as well. The justice committee had long debates on having a public transport police service and I have campaigned on that proposal for a number of years. It needs to be a division of An Garda Síochána to have the correct powers to be able to arrest and detain people and to imbue it with the same sense of respect for the security services. In other...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Road Safety (21 Mar 2024)

Martin Kenny: ...Yet, these are the two areas where we do not seem to be getting action from the Government. One of the things I noticed over the weekend, which I heard about on the news this morning, was that the Garda introduced an enforcement campaign over St. Patrick's weekend, which referenced the number of people found speeding. One person was travelling at 142 km/h in a 60 km/h zone while another...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Road Safety (21 Mar 2024)

Martin Kenny: I am glad the Minister acknowledged that but the problem is the resources are not being put in place for An Garda Síochána. We do not see enforcement happening on the roads. I saw a GoSafe van on the N4 this morning, which is a road with a 100 km/h speed limit. That road was absolutely open with practically no traffic on it but that was where the van was sitting. That is the...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Road Traffic Bill 2024: Committee Stage (28 Feb 2024)

Martin Kenny: ...a lot of these collisions happen is because people are driving within the existing speed limit and that this speed limit is not low enough. When I talk to people, whether it is members of An Garda Síochána, people who work in accident and emergency, or wherever else, they tell me that the reason most of these accents occur is because people are driving well in excess of the...

Recent Arson Attacks: Statements (27 Feb 2024)

Martin Kenny: ...generates more and more hatred. That creates an atmosphere whereby a tiny number of delinquent people will then go off and burn buildings, attack people or whatever. We can state that the Garda is doing this, that or the other and the Government is opposed to what is happening and all of that, but the Government also has a responsibility to ensure that it does not create fertile...

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

Martin Kenny: ...again by almost 15%. If there is not the level of enforcement of the laws, then producing more laws is not going to change that. I recently had a lengthy conversation with a retired member of An Garda Síochána who worked in the roads policing unit for many years. He made the point that they would often catch somebody travelling at maybe 30% or 40% above the speed limit. The...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Bus Services (1 Feb 2024)

Martin Kenny: ...about where people are, and people will be at bus stops, on trains and using public transport more and more. That is why we have a longstanding proposal to see a transport policing division of An Garda Síochána. That needs to be considered in the context of expanding and growing our public transport infrastructure across the country. Another issue comes to mind in respect...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Weather Events (13 Dec 2023)

Martin Kenny: ...go, who is going to co-ordinate in that regard and how we do ensure that this can be delivered in a quick and efficient manner to ensure people can be looked after? I acknowledge the work of An Garda Síochána in respect of this matter. Gardaí were on the scene. They looked after people and ensured everything was dealt with very well. That is the one thing you get from...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh (Atógáil) - Priority Questions (Resumed): Road Safety (30 Nov 2023)

Martin Kenny: ...other aspect of this issue has to do with enforcement. The biggest problem is that we do not have the levels of enforcement we need. This particularly applies to the road policing sections of An Garda Síochána. These have been cut in almost every county. This issue also needs to be examined. I have raised the issue of the roads themselves several times. I note in the...