Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the COP26 statement. I just read the remarks of the Taoiseach, who was speaking as we started the Order of Business. It is very important, as a number of people have said, that we all play our part in every way we can, be that through a small thing or a big thing. That might be not buying as much food when we do not really need it, which Senator O'Loughlin referred to, or something like cycling. I cycled in today. I am lucky enough to live relatively close so I can do that but the route I take is one on which a cyclist unfortunately had a fatality yesterday. I pay sympathy and give my condolences to his friends and family for that fatality.

We are entering into the wintertime. The clocks have gone back and we will all notice in the next few minutes how dark it is going to be so early. I am a motorist more often than I am a cyclist, although I still cycle a fair bit, and motorists in particular must pay attention to cyclists and pedestrians. It is of course helpful if cyclists are well lit up or are wearing high-vis jackets and helmets and so on but if there is a confrontation between a motorist and a cyclist, or a motorist and a pedestrian, it is fairly certain that the cyclist or the pedestrian is going to be the worse off in the collision. I ask that we have a debate on road safety but at the same time, all of us here, from both urban and rural Ireland, should get out there and tell motorists to take that little bit of extra care. As part of COP26 we are trying to get more people to cycle, engage in active travel and walk but we need to make sure it is safe because fatalities and injuries are what frighten people away from those modes of transport.It might be useful for us to have a debate with the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, on road safety. Now that the clocks have gone back, let all of us, motorists, cyclists and pedestrians, be vigilant all of the time to make sure we all stay safe.