Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. Road fatalities are of course devastating, and we have heard Senator Flynn's own account. It is a devastating event for families who lose loved ones and for people who are left with life-changing injuries. Yesterday, there was an incredible announcement from Cabinet, which was the approval of more than €462 million for the N5 bypass in County Roscommon. That will save lives. I know that for all of us representatives, including the Acting Chairperson, how crucial it is. So many public representatives have worked on that project with local communities over the past ten or 20 years to get it to this point. The decision by Cabinet yesterday on that 33 km of road will save lives in County Roscommon. The collision rate on certain sections of the existing road is nearly double the national average. That is a country road. The Minister of State has his own connections with the west and knows what it is like on some of the roads I drive on in the constituency in which I live. I can be driving for an hour and a half from one end of the constituency to the other and I will be on what is considered a regional road or even a national road but the quality can be extremely poor. It does lend itself to additional accidents.

This funding for the N5 Ballaghaderreen to Scramoge bypass was approved under the public spending code. It will make things safer. It will remove heavy traffic for communities in Frenchpark, Bellanagare, Tulsk and Strokestown. I acknowledge it is a key priority for the Minister of State and something he has looked at. We had an opportunity through the Fine Gael parliamentary party to speak with the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, a number of weeks ago to highlight this. I know it has been absolutely crucial for the Taoiseach as well, and a key priority in Government.

A new road will make travel safer for all users. It is not just cars; it is also buses, including Local Link and Bus Éireann, and people who need to get the bus from A to B. With this funding, cycleway linkages to the towns being bypassed will also be created so people will be able to connect cycleways on the existing N5 route. The officials are looking at that in terms of safer routes for cycling in the area. I want to highlight the importance of this in terms of investment in our region and it is also crucial for tourism as people now have safe ways to visit the area and to connect with the airport in Knock.

In the context of road safety, the loss of life is very high, especially in rural areas. There are treacherous roads and the Minister of State will be aware that Galway is the second largest county and we have a lot of roads. Our population may not be the highest but we have a huge number of roads that need to be covered, both national and local roads, and so on. How and in what way will the Department of Transport support local authorities that have such a high number of roads they have to cover and make safe? It has to be taken into account that when a county council is dealing with the number of roads the kilometres that are involved.

With regard to active travel, we need safe footpaths for people to be able to walk to town, to school and to the sports club. That is a challenge in many of our small towns. The sports club can be 1 km or 1.5 km outside the town. Families are driving children to the sports club instead. The Minister of State will know this from his previous role. He has seen this. What can we do? The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, talked about variable speed limits. Can variable speed limits be set up so that it is a 50 km/h zone and community groups can apply for funding to get footpaths to be laid to the sports clubs? Sports clubs or community groups could apply for funding to build connectivity. In Ballinasloe, I recently linked in with the NTA and we received funding. When this fund was announced two to three years ago, funding of nearly €500,000 was granted to Ballinasloe town in the first round for the areas of Poolboy and Beechlawn to deliver safe footpaths on busy roads. However, this project was not completed. I completed a survey and we had more than 70 respondents from four different estates where people said they would reduce their number of car journeys by two to four. I am talking about 100 m to 200 m. These are estates in the middle of town that do not have footpath connectivity. How does this exist in this day and age? If I go to any city in the country and ask anyone in the city centre if there is any estate that does not have footpath access-----