Jerry Buttimer (Cork South-Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this important issue relating to Kilmessan. I am taking the matter on behalf of the Minister for Transport, Deputy O'Brien, who sends his apologies.

I fully understand where the Senator is coming from. I assure her that the Government, road safety partners and all the agencies are working to address the alarming trends in road fatalities and serious injuries and continue to focus on priority actions. I will bring the Senator's request to measure and collate data and to use it as a part of a road safety campaign relating to traffic calming back to the Department.

In the context of the response by the Department, which I will come back to, the Senator made a very good point regarding the school, its 231 students, their parents and teachers and the entire school community. I wonder whether the school has applied to participate in the safe routes to school programme. I am happy to work with the Senator in this regard because it is important that we collectively work with, for example, as she said, Skane Valley Community Council and Meath County Council, to get back on track towards a steady reduction in annual fatalities on our roads. Each fatality is a person from a family, from a village and from a community. As I said earlier this week in the House, last year there were 175 road deaths, which was down on the year before, but this figure was the highest since 2014. As the Senator rightly said, there are four causes of deaths on our roads: speeding, distracted road users, not wearing a seatbelt and intoxicated driving. The matter she has raised relates to erratic speed and the volume of traffic.As I mentioned in the House this week, some of this is about personal responsibility, some is about the combined approach of the Government, agencies and Meath County Council in the Senator's case, and working with people and public representatives such as Senator Nelson Murray to ensure we tackle behaviour, bring in education and enforcement and create driver awareness about the long-term effect of speeding. We also need to bring in legislative reform.

As Senator Nelson Murray said, the speed limit changes were introduced in February and were backed by legislation. They are part of the Government's response to systemically address the most dangerous of behaviours. The current national framework for road safety is set out in the Government's fifth road safety strategy. I hope we can work with local authorities to ensure we deliver for Senator Nelson Murray.

Senator Ryan and the Leas-Chathaoirleach referenced the Castletroy junction in the House previously. This week, Senator Kennelly made a point on the issue in Kerry. It is about working to have the Vision Zero targets achieved. This means a combined effort, taking on board some of what Senator Nelson Murray has suggested and perhaps changing some of the parameters. Under the action plan, which is phase 2 of the strategy over the next two years, we will focus on delivering actions that can have a high impact on the road safety outcomes we all want.

As Members know, the Road Traffic Act is the Government's response to road safety trends. It tries to monitor, regulate and change driving behaviour through, for example, mandatory drug testing at the scene of a collision, penalty points system reform and the introduction, which Senator Nelson Murray might want to see in her area, of safer default speed limits as recommended by the speed limit review. The speed limit review will bring decreases in speed limits from 80 km/h to 60 km/h and from 50 km/h to 30 km/h. We have done this in some larger urban areas. In a debate this week, Senator Noonan made reference to a friend of his who was involved in a fatal road traffic accident. It is about ensuring that, in urban areas such as Kilmessan, we have safer speed limits. It is not about applying targets. Rather, it is about working with local authorities to conduct speed limit reviews to aid them in setting correct speed limits, looking at traffic calming measures, and working with An Garda Síochána on enforcement.

As Senator Nelson Murray has said, the accumulation and gathering of speed data is important for each local authority. If there is an anomaly and we are not getting the proper information then I, as the Minister of State, am not afraid to look at it and speak to the relevant people. In the case of Kilmessan, the average peak and off-peak speeds should be collated so that we can ensure accurate information is provided. I look forward to working with Senator Nelson Murray on the matter and with the Ministers, Deputies O'Brien and Calleary.