Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is very welcome to the Chamber to talk about the important issue of road safety. I agree with some of the speakers who said that when you knock on doors when canvassing or outside election periods and ask people how they are getting on and about issues affecting them, the issue of speeding is brought up so often. This is in both rural and city areas. Given the speed that cars go, we have to ask how many people obey the speed limits. I am referring to the period even before the recent reduction of speed limits on many roads.

I am not going to present myself as somebody with a halo over my head. I have had penalty points, as have many others. They are important because, without such deterrents, speed cameras and the threat of a greater power checking the impulse to speed, there would be even more speeding. That is God’s honest truth. It is inherent in us, particularly younger people. I remember that when I first started driving, I could not see a car in front of me without trying to overtake it. God knows, my car at the time was not great. It was a matter of impulse, not that I had any place to go in a hurry. Overtaking was something one did. It is just human nature.

The role of the Garda is to enforce. It is very easy to blame it. We do so when we refer to the speed limit and say it is not up to the county council to enforce it; it is up to the Garda to do so. The council’s role is to adjudicate on speed limits and to put in place measures to make roads safer or more difficult to speed on.

The model of road construction has probably changed because, once upon a time, it was a case of building wide national roads, carriageways and hard shoulders, as straight as possible. That has changed somewhat now because there seem to be narrower carriageways and hard shoulders that act as a deterrent. We often hear the phrase "a fast stretch of road". What does that mean?It means the stretch of road encourages speeding because it is wide, straight or whatever. The view that motorists have become more impatient since Covid may be anecdotal. I am not sure there is any evidence for it, but perhaps there is. Perhaps the statistics show it.

With regard to funding streams, the community involvement scheme entails one of the streams of funding I believe is most beneficial to local authorities. In Galway, the scheme will be open again in the middle of the summer. There are sufficient numbers for the scheme and it has been opened every two years. Really, there needs to be an increase in the funding for the scheme because it is about improving safety. It is about taking out bad bends and improving visibility at junctions on national, regional and local roads. It is a very beneficial scheme and one I believe would absolutely improve safety if its funding were increased.

It is often said that if land is available from a landowner, be it at a junction or to allow for footpath installation, it goes a long way. Various schemes, whether they concern safe routes to school, community involvement, SOLAS or rural social initiatives, can assist so much in making roads safer for residents.

There is a series of unofficial bus stops all over the country. These are not bus stops that went through the planning system although they might have been recognised as bus stops along national and regional routes for 30, 40 or 50 years. In this regard, particularly when it comes to picking up schoolchildren, much concern is expressed regarding safety. This relates to early starts, dark mornings and parents parking outside schools so their children will not get wet. We need to continue to roll out programmes for adequate and safe bus shelters and places at which parents can drop off their children in the knowledge they will be safe and dry and from which they can be taken on to school by bus. Initiatives like these can improve the safety of children, who are our most vulnerable citizens. There is a particular issue in regard to dropping off and picking up at schools on which we could do more.