Cathal Byrne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber.

I will make a couple key points about road safety. I will make my contribution through my own experiences in Wexford.

Obviously, the 4% decrease in road fatalities from 2023 to 2024 is welcome. In Wexford, however, we saw six fatalities in 2024 and three in 2023. Unfortunately, the statistics on this are clear, with seven in ten road fatalities occurring on our rural roads. That is what I want to focus on.

In Wexford, we have three areas that I can highlight from many examples. They are in direct need of safety remediation works along national roads. At the end of the M11 motorway, there is Kyle Cross from near Oylegate towards Wexford town. We have Larkin’s Cross on the N25 just outside the village of Barntown outside of Wexford town. We also have Clohamon Cross, which is on the road from Enniscorthy towards Bunclody and on towards County Carlow. These are, unfortunately, the location of too many fatalities over the past 15 years. I urge the Minister of State and TII to take these crosses seriously. We have had reports, we have had consultants look at the roads and we have had reviews, but we have not had action. These are areas where a regional road joins a national road and we need direct involvement by TII to deliver the proposed safety works.

The second issue I wish to highlight is the funding that is being made available for safety improvement works through the budget for Wexford. Wexford shares a population size with Donegal and Tipperary, but in the 2024 allocation, Tipperary received €600,000 and Donegal received €535,500 while Wexford only received €398,000. I ask that, in the 2025 funding allocation for safety improvement works under the budget, the Wexford allocation be similar to that of Tipperary and Donegal.