Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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154. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the steps he is taking to address road safety; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9422/25]

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North-West, Fianna Fail)
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175. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to improve road safety, reduce the number of fatal crashes on roads and increase enforcement at traffic light junctions. [9439/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 154 and 175 together.

The Government has a dedicated Road Safety Strategy, which is aligned with the EU Vision Zero aspiration for 2050 and includes the interim target of halving fatalities and serious injuries on our roads by 2030. The Strategy is being delivered in partnership by key road safety agencies, including my Department, the Department of Justice, the Road Safety Authority and An Garda Síochána.

Notable achievements during Phase 1 of the Strategy to the end of 2024 include the signing into law of the Road Traffic Act 2024 in April last year, which seeks to bring about systemic change to dangerous driver behaviour through harsher penalties on those caught committing multiple driving offences, and mandatory drug testing at the scene of a collision. Furthermore, it legislates for safer default speed limits across various segments of Ireland's road network. Deputies will be aware that the first phase took effect on February 7th this year, reducing the speed limit on rural and local roads from 80 km/h to 60 km/h.

Work is also progressing on the first National Safety Camera Strategy, which will provide a framework for a significant expansion of camera-based enforcement in the coming years. Pending the finalisation of this strategy, in recent months An Garda Síochána has put into operation three new average speed camera zones in Mayo, Cavan and Meath, adding to the successful average speed systems already in place on the M7 and Port Tunnel. Moreover, since last April, uniformed members of An Garda Síochána have been required to carry out 30 minutes of high-visibility roads policing per shift, depending on operational demands, and this change coincided with a marked improvement in monthly fatality statistics from May to the end of 2024. Of course, we must sustain and build on this progress to achieve our 2030 targets.

To help build upon recent improvements, my Department and our road safety partners are collaborating on the development of the Phase 2 Action Plan under the Road Safety Strategy, which will run to the end of 2027. The Action Plan will focus on delivering high impact actions and interventions on road safety outcomes in the coming years following the safe systems approach. I expect the Action Plan to be adopted and published in the coming months.

Finally, following an independent review of the Road Safety Authority in 2024, radical change to the Authority and wider Government road safety structures are now proposed to deliver a more effective and efficient response to the deteriorating trends on our roads. The RSA will become two separate and independent bodies, with responsibility, respectively, for customer services and for wider public interest activities, such as communications, education and road safety campaigns. The Department is progressing an implementation plan for this reform which will, in the long-term, support the delivery of improved road safety outcomes.

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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155. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport when collision data will be available to local authorities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9423/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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Collision data are compiled by An Garda Síochána in the first instance. In recent years, the onward sharing of these data with both the Road Safety Authority (RSA) and local authorities has been complicated by the General Data Protection Regulation and associated safeguards in relation to personal data.

Following extensive efforts by stakeholders across the sector, an approach to the sharing of data in future was agreed with the Data Protection Commission last year, following which a Ministerial Order was issued under Section 8 of the Road Safety Authority Act 2006 to allow the RSA to receive collision data from An Garda Síochána.

The restoration of full data sharing with local authorities is more complex and requires amending the Roads Act 1993. In July 2024, Government approved a General Scheme of a bill to make these amendments. Engagement between the Department and the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel in relation to the proposed provisions has been ongoing in recent months and, as called for in the Programme for Government, it is expected that this matter will be resolved in the forthcoming National Vehicle and Driver File Bill. It is my intention that this Bill progresses to enactment before the end of 2025.

It should be noted, however, that local authority investment decisions are still informed by collision data through an interim arrangement, pending the full resolution described above. My Department continues to analyse collision data for locations of interest and shares the critical analysis with local authorities to support targeted road safety investment. In 2024, the Department provided grant funding for 60 road safety improvement schemes identified through this location identification analysis.

The use of collision data by local authorities is an important input in our collective response to road safety and I am committed to seeing this issue fully resolved.