Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this important issue. I apologise on behalf of the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, who cannot be here this morning because he is attending a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport. He sends his apologies. The Senator has raised a number of matters and I will try my best to answer them. Where she has any suggestions to highlight that are not in my response and that I cannot address, I will certainly convey them to the Minister.

I offer my condolences to the Senator on the loss of her friend and to anyone who has lost a loved one or relative in a road accident. Our entire objective throughout all of this and the changes we have made at European and local level is to try to bring down the number of road deaths. We have set ourselves an objective of reducing road fatalities to 120 annually by 2020. Unfortunately, last year, we lost 142 people on our roads. We need to address that slight increase. A huge volume of work has been done particularly in respect of HGVs. Much of this has been done at EU level and been implemented locally. Manufacturers of HGVs must comply with requirements for a range of compulsory safety features and this is part of the EU's type-approval regime. This regime sets the safety, environmental and technical standards for motor vehicles that must be adhered to in order for those vehicles to be placed on the market and registered in EU member states.While some high-end vehicle types already have a variety of high-tech safety features as standard, it is important that such systems are progressively introduced into all vehicles across the board. In order to achieve this goal, a new European regulation, as the Senator has mentioned, replacing what is known as the "general safety regulation", is due to come into effect shortly that will introduce a new range of mandatory safety features, particularly for HGVs. These features will be gradually introduced over the next number of years, I suppose to allow those who need to upgrade or to install them within their vehicles to do so in a cost-effective manner. An example of the new safety systems includes pedestrian and cyclist collision warning, particularly for those in towns and cities. I note there has been a five-axle ban from Dublin City Council within the city since the opening of the port tunnel but, obviously, there are those who have a licence to come in. Given the amount of construction happening within the city centre, hopefully, this is something that will help to protect pedestrians and cyclists. Further examples of the new safety systems include: blind spot information, direct vision, tyre pressure monitoring, emergency stop signal, alcohol interlock installation, drowsiness and attention detection and event or accident data recorders.

These mandatory safety features will be gradually introduced into the type-approval regime on a phased basis over a period from 2022 to 2029. They are being heralded by the European Commission as having "the same kind of impact as when the safety belts were first introduced", and one will be aware that thousands of lives have been saved. The Commission expects the proposed measures will save 25,000 lives and avoid at least 140,000 serious injuries across all vehicle types by 2038. There is a considerable amount of work being done in that regard.

Briefly at the beginning, the Senator mentioned the climate agenda. In recent years, the diesel rebate scheme was introduced to support an industry given that Ireland is an island, we export 90% of what we produce and we need to make sure that it is feasible for our hauliers and for these companies to work and continue their job. At the same time, we are clear that the future fuelling of any freight operations over time needs to transition to cleaner greener fuels and that is something that has been included as part of the new cross-Government strategy to try to reach our 2030 emissions target but also, as we agreed at a European level this week, to ensure that we are climate neutral by 2050. That will certainly include this industry.

In relation to tolling, the Senator mentioned Slane. As a resident of Slane and somebody who has worked on this bypass before even being elected, I am aware that a considerable amount of work has been done on showing why toll bans, specifically, for the M1, do not work, and why all of these other measures in terms of banning HGVs have not worked. There has been at least two or three years' work done by the local authority to show why a bypass is necessary. I take the Senator's reasoning that not everywhere needs a bypass but the village of Slane has had countless needless deaths, not only along the bridge which, although not quite from the time of King James I, has been there so long it needs to be upgraded. A bypass is the only way that we can prevent the trucks from coming through because much of it is down to habit or knowing particular routes. This is why, particularly also given that the M1 is almost reaching capacity as well, we need to see an upgrade along that route.

In terms of the tolling, and this is a question that I have asked around, there is a difficulty for people paying tolls when there is the M3 in Meath as well. There are two tolls between Cavan and Dublin as well. Unfortunately, the Department I represent today, the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, has responsibility for overall policy and funding in relation to the national roads programme but individual national roads come under Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TIl, in conjunction with the local authorities concerned. Any issues the Senator has raised regarding this regarding this, including toll roads and the establishment of a system of tolls, are within the remit of TIl. Like the Senator, I think these issues will continue to be raised within the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. I will come back to the Senator on any specific issues she has.