Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

I support the call by Senator Brian Hayes for a debate on the National Roads Authority, particularly in light of the appalling accident on the M50 which happens to be in my area. This was the site of another accident which resulted in death some time ago, due to the fact that the crash barriers are not in place. It was not today or yesterday that a call was made to the NRA to provide crash barriers. Numerous calls have been made on Fingal County Council to have these crash barriers put in place on the M50 and other major national routes. It is time the NRA listened to public representatives who know what is necessary to help avoid the types of crashes that occurred in the past week and for a number of years. Its response has been that sufficient money was not made available to deal with the issue. Given that roads are being built at a cost of hundreds of millions of euro, I do not understand why additional funding cannot be provided to put safety on our roads first. It is time we had a debate on the NRA and road safety generally.