Dee Ryan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and thank him for taking the time to discuss road safety in the House. I wish him and his Department officials well in the important work ahead of them in delivering on the ambitious goals in the programme for government. It was an issue of concern at virtually every door I knocked on during the general election campaign. The condition of local roads, the desire and appetite for more speed ramps and the concerns and real fears around speed on our roads were issues that came up time and again, as the Minister of State is well aware. I wish him and his Department officials well in the important work they are doing on our behalf.

I want to highlight two specific road safety concerns for people who live, work, study and commute in the Limerick city area. The first is an extremely dangerous junction close to the M20 at which lives may be being put at risk. Motorists travelling on the M20 motorway and the M7 motorway at Limerick in the direction of Dublin have raised concerns about safety at junction 28, the Castletroy exit. This is a very big exit serving two business parks, a university, a secondary school with 1,200 students, five primary schools and a shopping centre. There are thousands of people living in the immediate vicinity. During periods of high traffic in the morning and evening, tailbacks at the junction are so long that drivers who are trying to safely exit the motorway are forced to move to the hard shoulder to join the queue to get in the lane for the exit while high-speed traffic - cars, trucks and other heavy vehicles - zooms past. It is an accident waiting to happen. It is a worrying part of the daily commute for parents dropping their children to school and creche before travelling on to work and for workers travelling from one part of the city, the Raheen and Dooradoyle area, to the Castletroy and Annacotty area.

I have raised the issue with both the NTA and Limerick City and County Council. They will be bringing forward plans to upgrade this busy junction at the Mackey roundabout and implement a park-and-ride facility in the area. However, the indicated lands for the park-and-ride facilitate will not alleviate the tailbacks on the motorway. In addition, no clear timeline is defined for the major works that will be required to upgrade the Mackey road junction. Will the Minister of State outline what can be done to bring forward the work on the junction upgrade and indicate whether there are strategies that might be employed in advance of work on that upgrade being completed? Will he also address similar issues of road safety in other areas in light of the increased busyness of all motorways across the country?

The second matter I wish to raise relates to a serious road safety concern for schoolchildren and pedestrians at Gaelscoil Chaladh an Treoigh in Castletroy. I refer to something that makes the Castletroy greenway extremely hazardous and that makes a mockery of the concept of safe routes to school. I have been approached by the school and members of the parents' council who are very worried about the complete lack of safety measures along a section of the Castletroy greenway at the Mills. The Mills is a housing development that has been built around the greenway but, unfortunately, the greenway and the pedestrian and cycle lanes there are not clearly delineated for users.As a consequence, cars and vans are driving on the greenway and on the walking and cycling routes between the SuperValu car park and the school. Drivers cannot even be blamed for this dangerous error because there are no bollards to block access or wands or other safety measures in place to indicate to them that they cannot access this route.

I have raised this matter with the active travel unit in Limerick City and County Council, which advises that it cannot do anything to address the situation until the estate has been taken in charge by the council. The school and the parents' council have raised the matter with the developer directly. Unfortunately, the developer has not engaged and seems unwilling to address the safety issue in this interim period before the estate is completed and handed over to the school. A serious hazard persists for the 500 students, who are age three in the naíonra and up to age 12 in rang a sé, and who are walking this route daily, as well as for the children living in the new homes at the Mills in Castletroy. I urge the Minister of State to intervene in order to see what can be done to support the local elected representatives, including councillors and TDs, as well as Senator Maria Byrne and I, who have addressed this matter locally. I ask him to support us in having that route made safe for the students and children who use it.