The purpose of today's meeting is to resume our discussions on road safety. Our engagement today is with the Road Safety Authority, RSA, and Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, to discuss recent incidents on the motorway network. On behalf of members and myself, we remember today the 139 people who have tragically lost their lives on Irish roads to date this year, and the approximately 1,000 who have been seriously injured. As always, we are very conscious that behind each and every one of those statistics is a family and community devastated.

Of course, today's particular focus is on wrong-way driving on the motorway network. While motorways statistically should be our safest roads, the central question for the committee today is to some extent very simple: How quickly can we detect a vehicle driving the wrong way? How quickly can we warn other motorists, and how quickly can we stop it? We will hear about emerging technology, but ultimately, we need clarity on what can be done immediately and in the short-term, what technology can be deployed now, where the high-risk locations are and when a comprehensive detection and warning system will be operational.

On behalf of the committee, I welcome from the RSA Mr. Sam Waide, chief executive officer; Mr. Brendan Walsh, chief operations officer; Ms Nuala Carey, director of partnerships and external affairs; Ms Velma Burns, research manager; Ms Annette Ferguson, assistant principal, communications; and Mr. John Brinn, chief ADI examiner. From TII I once again welcome Mr. Pat Maher, director of network management; Mr. Andrew O'Sullivan, senior network operations manager; and Mr. Alastair de Beer, head of road safety. The format of the meeting is that we will initially hear opening statements, followed by a question-and-answer session. I ask members to be concise with their questions to allow witnesses the opportunity to participate.

I have a note on privilege. I remind the witnesses of the long-standing parliamentary practice that they should not criticise or make charges against any person or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable or otherwise engage in speech that might be regarded as damaging to the good name of that person or entity. Therefore, if their statements are potentially defamatory in relation to an identifiable person or entity, they will be directed to discontinue their remarks and it is imperative they comply with this direction. I remind members of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person outside of the House or an official either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.

As usual, we will allow seven minutes for questions and answers for each member, and we will hopefully have a follow-up three-minute opportunity also. I now invite Mr. Waide to make his opening statement on behalf of the Road Safety Authority.

I thank the Chair, Deputies and Senators. Good morning, everyone. First, I express our thanks to the committee for the opportunity to speak today. I extend my sincere and heartfelt condolences to those who have lost loved ones, or who have been injured, in collisions on our roads this year. While the focus of this meeting today is to discuss recent incidents on our motorway network, I would like to begin by discussing some key collision trends from this year to date.

As of 23 September 2026, An Garda Síochána has recorded 128 fatal collisions, which have resulted in 139 fatalities on Irish public roads and public places, such as car parks. The figures referenced in this opening statement are based on 125 fatal collisions, which have resulted in 136 fatalities on Irish public roads over the period from 1 January to 23 September 2026. Three of these fatalities did not occur on public roads and are not included in this analysis. That said, they are still fatalities, with families affected by them.

To date, we have seen 30 more deaths on our roads than we did in the same period in 2025. In addition, and as the Chair rightly pointed out, approximately 1,000 people have been seriously injured in 2026. In the 139 fatalities recorded in 2026, of the 136 of those, 54 were drivers and 23 were passengers. Some 44% of those who died on our roads this year were vulnerable road users, including 24 pedestrians, 21 motorcyclists, ten cyclists and four e-scooter users. Demographic breakdowns show that over three quarters of all road deaths this year were male, while close to a third were aged 25 years or under. Young drivers continue to be a particularly high-risk group.

Geographically, counties Dublin, Cork, Donegal and Kildare have seen the highest number of fatalities this year to date. Time and day trends show that over four in ten fatalities this year occurred on Saturday and Sunday. Over half of these weekend fatalities were road users aged 35 or less, and almost half - 48% - of all weekend fatalities occurred between the hours of 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. In terms of serious injuries, over the last five years from 2021 to 2025, there were ten serious injuries for every fatality on Irish roads. Our analysis of hospital data shows even higher numbers, given that injuries may not always be reported to An Garda Síochána.

I would now like to cover motorway collisions specifically. Motorways are the safest roads in Ireland, with the lowest proportion of casualties compared to local, regional and national roads. In light of recent incidents on our motorways, however, it is important that we consider collision trends and ways to further enhance their safety. Any death or serious injury on our roads is one too many. Between 2021 and 2025, there were 36 road user deaths on motorways in Ireland; 15 were drivers, seven were passengers, nine were pedestrians and five were motorcyclists. During this same five-year period, there were 218 seriously injured road users on motorways; 136 were drivers, 52 were passengers, 22 were motorcyclists and eight were pedestrians.

In 2026, up to 16 September, there have been seven fatalities in three collisions on motorways in Ireland. Three drivers and four passengers were killed, all of whom were male. One crash resulted in five fatalities, and two of these collisions involved a driver who was driving in the wrong direction on the motorway. Wrong-way driving, or contra-flow driving, refers to a driver travelling in the opposite direction to traffic flow. National and international evidence indicates that while this behaviour is rare compared to other dangerous driver behaviours, it poses a significant risk of fatal or serious injuries when it occurs, as this may result in head-on collisions at high speed.

The international research literature indicates that wrong-way motorway driving may arise from different types of contributory factors, such as driver error which, for example, can be confusion in understanding motorway signage or infrastructure, or risk-taking. Between 2023 and 2025, there were three fatal and serious injury collisions on motorways in Ireland where one of the vehicles was recorded as driving in the wrong direction.

Two collisions were fatal and one was serious. In the fatal and serious injury collisions, there were two fatalities and five serious injuries. It is important to note that while the RSA can identify collisions involving a wrong-way driver, we currently do not receive information on whether these collisions resulted from the driver error or risk-taking in the collision data we received from An Garda Síochána.

In regard to awareness and education, in response to recent motorway incidents, the RSA is currently running a social media campaign that provides advice on what to do if you encounter a vehicle travelling in the wrong direction on a motorway or if you find yourself driving the wrong way on a motorway. This campaign has been running since August across our social media channels and includes a mix of static, creative and videos. We have also published a leaflet outlining emergency advice on what to do when encountering a vehicle travelling in the wrong direction. This advice includes, for example, urging road users to stay calm and avoid any sudden or dangerous manoeuvres. It advises road users to create as much space away from the oncoming vehicle as possible and, when it is safe to do so, leave the motorway and pull into a designated parking area or motorway service area. It further advises to call An Garda Síochána on 999 or 112 and report the wrong way vehicle, give the motorway and their direction of travel and, if possible, provide the vehicle's location and description as well as any other information that may help An Garda Síochána identify the vehicle or locate it. The leaflet also provides information on what to do if you unintentionally find yourself driving against the flow of traffic.

From a driver education perspective, the theory of motorway driving is a component of the learning to drive syllabus. This incorporates guidance in relation to joining, driving and leaving motorways, including awareness of the dangers of incorrect positioning. We also have a video on the RSA YouTube channel on how to safely use motorways.

In summary, we are deeply concerned about the numbers of people who have died and been seriously injured on the roads to date in 2026, including the most recent motorway incidents. The RSA's remit focuses on the promotion of road safety, education and awareness initiatives and road safety and collision research. Motorway infrastructure design and enforcement are also critical to reducing the risks of wrong-way driving.

We welcome any questions that members may have in relation to the points set out in our opening statement and in our more detailed written submission, which we have provided, and welcome further discussion this morning on partnership working on how to improve motorway safety in Ireland.

I thank the Cathaoirleach and members of the committee for the invitation to appear before it today. I am the director of network management in TII. I am joined by my TII colleagues, Mr. Andrew O'Sullivan, senior operations manager for the eastern region, and Mr. Alastair de Beer, head of road safety.

I will first set out TII's role in operating and managing the motorway network. The National Roads Authority, operating as Transport Infrastructure Ireland since 2015, was established under the Roads Act 1993. It is the general duty of TII to secure the provision of a safe and efficient network of national roads, having regard to the needs of all users. The national road network comprises approximately 5,300 km of road, of which 4,000 km are single carriageway roads. The remaining 1,300 km are motorways or high-speed dual carriageways. Of these, approximately 460 km are operated under 13 public-private partnership, PPP, concessions, with the remainder operated under three regional motorway maintenance and renewals contracts.

The construction of the major interurban motorway network in the first decade of this century was transformative for the movement of people and goods and for road safety in Ireland. Between 2003 and 2010, over 800 km of motorways and dual carriageways were constructed, linking the major regional centres to Dublin. During that period, the number of annual fatalities on Irish roads fell from 396 in 2005 to 212 in 2010, with much of the drop attributable to the rapid expansion of the motorway network. Motorways are the safest category of road in Ireland. On a vehicle to kilometre-travelled basis, motorways are more than eight times safer in respect to fatalities than single carriageway national roads. In addition, Irish motorways also perform very strongly by international standards. The fatality rate on Irish motorways of 1.3 fatalities per billion vehicle kilometres compares favourably with the European average of 2.1 fatalities per billion vehicle kilometres.

Wrong-way driving on motorways is a phenomenon that is not unique to Ireland. Across Europe and more widely, the incidence of wrong-way driving is an ongoing challenge for roads administrations. In Ireland, the challenge of monitoring a network with more than 200 individual junctions and 800 motorway entry and exit points is considerable. Operational records for the years 2021 to 2025 collated by TII's motorway operations control centre, MOCC, indicate an average of 77 incidents per year. It is important to recognise, and this is also acknowledged in other jurisdictions, that the number of actual incidents of wrong-way driving exceeds the recorded numbers. From a TII perspective, the statistics are based on a combination of incidents notified to the MOCC by An Garda Síochána and members of the public, as well as those identified using roadside technologies like CCTV or radar detection, although the numbers identified using technology are comparatively low. In addition, MOCC staff also include any incidents subsequently identified via media reporting, social media, etc.

In any consideration of wrong-way driving, a clear distinction should be made between inadvertent wrong-way driving and deliberate wrong-way driving. Engineering countermeasures aim to prevent the occurrence of a wrong-way journey, detect them when they do occur and alert the errant driver. These measures will not deter a driver who is intent on driving the wrong way on a motorway.

Internationally, older drivers and younger drivers are heavily overrepresented in wrong-way driving. Generally, older drivers' actions are associated with medically related conditions. Younger drivers are associated with alcohol and drug impairment, as well as attempted escape from the police. In addition, some incidents are associated with attempts of drivers to self-harm.

TII is an active member of the Conference of European Directors of Roads, CEDR, through which it keeps abreast of issues and solutions across European road networks. In regard to the issue of wrong-way driving, CEDR carried out a number of surveys between 2011 and 2025 of European roads authorities, including TII. These surveys examined the measures being deployed in the various countries. The results indicated that common measures being deployed included enhanced signage and road markings at motorway exits, the installation of detection systems linked to warning signs and the use of variable message signs to provide warning to wrong-way drivers and other motorists.

More broadly, public awareness campaigns have been instituted and increased enforcement measures put in place. A key conclusion from these surveys was that there is no single stand-alone solution capable of fully dealing with the challenges of wrong-way driving. Instead, a combination of measures through the greater use of new technologies, together with enhanced public awareness and more effective enforcement, is needed to mitigate the problem.

In 2025, TII became a member of the data for road safety, DFRS, partnership. This is a European partnership bringing together road authorities, vehicle manufacturers and service providers to progress the harmonised exchange of safety-related traffic information that is intended to assist in the identification and response to critical safety alerts. This is a further source of information on vehicle and traffic technology and data that will help inform future developments on the Irish road network. Once a wrong-way incident is reported, the motorway operations control centre located at the Dublin tunnel records the event in the network intelligence management system and automatically activates relevant warning messages on roadside variable message signs.

The system also publishes alerts to the TII website, distributes information through digital feeds, notifies An Garda Síochána where appropriate and dispatches incident support units through the relevant road operator.

TII and the operators in the MOCC work closely with An Garda Síochána in responding to wrong-way driving incidents, as is the case across all aspects of motorway operations and traffic management. Post occurrence, the MOCC operators record all available details relating to the incident, including location, time, consequence, involvement of An Garda Síochána, etc. For those incidents where a driver has inadvertently travelled the wrong direction on the motorway and their entry point can be determined, a subsequent site assessment is carried out. Where clusters of wrong-way driver incidents have occurred, remedial measures may be implemented. These may include improved destination signage, warning signage, road markings and other measures.

In recent years, TII has installed new signage on all interchange off-slips on the motorway network to clearly and consistently inform errant drivers that they are travelling in the wrong direction. Furthermore, a number of technologies have been trialled across the motorway network to assess their effectiveness in detecting and warning drivers of wrong-way driving events. I will reference some of these and start with the wrong-way driver variable message sign, VMS, system. Radar detection technology that detects and subsequently notifies wrong-way drivers through the use of dedicated variable message signs was deployed at 12 junction slip-road locations on the N18 at Ennis and the M7 at Portlaoise. While the deployment produced some positive results, it was our experience that the technologies deployed were not yet sufficiently mature to be scalable across the motorway network.

New connected vehicle technologies now being deployed by a number of vehicle manufacturers will enable communication directly between vehicles and also between vehicles and motorway control centres. This will allow the delivery of in-vehicle warning messages to warn drivers that they are driving the wrong way or to alert oncoming vehicles of the danger. To support the development of these technologies, between 2019 and 2024 TII successfully undertook an EU co-funded co-operative intelligent transport system, C-ITS, pilot project to demonstrate the feasibility of deploying and utilising these technologies on the Irish motorway network. While similar projects were undertaken in other EU member states, Ireland was the first country to integrate this C-ITS technology into the operation of our control centre active traffic management system. It will be a number of years before comprehensive deployment of connected technologies can be achieved across the vehicle fleet but, once achieved, the capacity to provide in-vehicle warnings will be transformative in relation to the prevention of wrong-way driving incidents.

I turn to current trials. TII continues to monitor new technologies that come to market to assess their suitability for inclusion in our motorway operations. Currently TII is evaluating several further technology-based solutions. These include leveraging a data fusion engine to identify wrong-way drivers by analysing existing feeds from the roadside CCTV cameras and, second, by deploying roadside image detection systems employing radar, LiDAR, thermal imaging technologies and roadside digital display systems. We are also examining the potential of a specific cloud-based wrong-way driver warning system. This system compares vehicle movements against permitted directions of travel and could potentially alert the offending driver and approaching drivers through connected vehicle technology and motorway control centres. These innovations will, in the future, provide the means of effectively detecting and notifying drivers of a wrong-way driving event. What is yet unclear is the timeline to the general deployment of the necessary in-vehicle and roadside technologies.

Wrong-way driving on Irish motorways is a low-frequency but high-severity risk. Emerging in-vehicle technology will, in the future, provide effective alerts to drivers of wrong-way events. TII has significantly improved monitoring, incident management and data collection over recent years and will continue to actively trial advanced detection technologies. Intentional wrong-way driving is a societal problem and is not one that can be solved by engineering and technological solutions alone. A combination of road-traffic enforcement and appropriate deterrents through the justice system are also necessary elements in addressing the problem. I thank the committee.

I thank the witnesses for their opening statements and for being here. It is horrific to hear the news or see it pop up on your phone that there has been another accident or fatality. We have been meeting for so long about road safety. We all have to agree that it does not just fall under one group, organisation or Department. It stretches across many different groups. We could do everything right and still be unable to change the person getting behind the wheel. There are so many different factors.

I have one or two questions. We will talk about the motorways. When it comes to lessons and tests, can the witnesses foresee, for learner drivers, that motorways will be part of the test going forward or that a certain number of the 12 lessons will have to incorporate motorways? I know not every county has a motorway linked to it, but the majority do. If drivers are going to travel outside their county, they will eventually have to use motorways. I often drive on motorways and see people driving slower that they are supposed to in the outside lane, and drivers in the inside lane overtaking them. People get frustrated and I know frustration can lead to accidents. If you are stuck behind somebody doing 50 km/h for an hour, all you want to do is put your foot to the floor to catch up on what you have lost. Drivers should not do that but that is the attitude they have and we cannot change the attitude of the person getting in to a car. To a certain degree, we can, in that we can educate, but sometimes we simply cannot. They are going to do what they are going to do. On the lessons and the test, are we ever going to incorporate motorways in them?

Within the approved driver instructor programme, there is an element on motorway driving, on entering and exiting a motorway. It is not practical; it is theoretical. However, I share the Senator's view. We are working closely with our colleagues in the Department of Transport. We are looking at the curriculum. We have an important meeting coming up next month with colleagues from the University of Queensland who carried out a study for us about what we should look at inputting as we design a new curriculum for the future. My personal opinion is that motorway driving must be part of it. I think I have told this committee before that I lived in Germany. Before people do their test in Germany, they drive for four hours on a motorway under guidance. We need to look at something like that, but that will be an output of the upcoming sessions. We will make recommendations to our colleagues in the Department of Transport, and I believe we will be pushing an open door with regard to those changes.

That is good to hear. I have had kids go through the driving test, and I have gone through driving lessons and the driving test myself. I am so old that thankfully I never had to do the theory test. I know the test is around towns and on national roads, but learners never hit a motorway. They also do not hit back roads a lot of the time. We need to look at that more broadly in the context of what lessons and tests need to incorporate.

On motorways, I think this is more a question for TII. I know other countries have it, but I cannot name them because I cannot think of them off the top of my head. Is there a possibility that we could put a detection system on the slip roads whereby if someone is detected going the wrong way, bollards come up to stop the car getting onto the motorway?

This matter has come up a few times over the past month for obvious reasons. The research we have undertaken indicates that such a system is not deployed in any other jurisdiction. I can reference some reports going back quite a few years to the US where active consideration was given to this. However, the practical problems of the installation of permanent stingers are such that it is not feasible in motorway operations. First, it may be necessary, for example, for emergency vehicles or members of An Garda Síochána to go the wrong way down a slip road to attend a serious incident, etc.

The physical installation is difficult. The ongoing maintenance is also difficult. We also have to bear in mind that statistics indicate that approximately 40% of wrong-way driving incidents originate from driving the wrong way down a slip road. The remaining percentage is associated with turnaround movements on the main line or going down a slip road the correct way and then making a right turn. In theory, you would be dealing with part of the problem but it would only be addressing a small part of the problem. The practical difficulties dictate that it is not really feasible.

That is fine. I was a bit sceptical myself because you are dealing with technology. It would be fairly messy if it got hacked and all of those bollards went up. It is just something I was thinking about to stop the slip road side of it. As I said at the start, TII, the RSA and An Garda Síochána can only do a certain amount. I am delighted that we are to have An Garda Síochána in next week because everybody has to do this together. I am talking about driver behaviour. If a car is going the wrong way down the motorway and not by accident, no message to the driver's phone and no flashing lights will stop them. An Garda Síochána has to play its part there. There was something on the radio the other day asking when you last saw a checkpoint. Thinking about it, the last time I saw a checkpoint was during the Covid pandemic and I drive a lot. Other people said that they had seen one a few weeks ago but we do have a serious issue and that is something I am going to bring up next week. We do not have enough roads policing. If we really want to get this right and if we really want to work on road safety, that has to be done on all sides. Enforcement and deterrence are needed more than anything. We have fantastic roads. The accidents that happen on our motorways are usually minor enough. They are not always fatal. I believe our motorways are safe, to a certain degree.

I thank the witnesses for coming in to talk to us today. Does TII have a map of the country with black spots, categorised by severity?

As part of the road safety remit, we follow the European directive, which requires us to look at black spots, which we call high-collision locations, on the network. Every two years, we take three years of data and work out the collision locations.

Does TII share that with the local authorities to drive improvement in road design?

We do. We first look at all of those locations ourselves. We come up with between 160 and 200 a year. The number was up to 384 about 15 years ago. We have managed to get it down to about 160 locations now. We pass that information on to the local authorities once we have looked at the locations and seen what the predominant collision type is. A lot of the time, there is not a predominant collision type so it is difficult to see what sort of engineering measure is required. Once we pass that information on to the local authorities, they come back to us with a report on how they propose to address the issues. We fund those reports.

How is that tracked? Does TII track each report it sends to a local authority that should result in a change to the road design? Does it track the location to make sure the redesigned road is actually driving fewer accidents?

We have road safety engineers in regions across the country. These help the local authorities prepare the reports. A lot of the time, no engineering measure is taken. We just monitor the location to see what happens. A lot of the time, sites come up repeatedly. We monitor those to make sure issues are addressed. Once issues at a site have been addressed, we continue to monitor it. We look at collision rates and speeds. A lot of the time, the measure we put in is a speed measure, such as reducing the cross-section of a road to reduce speeds in urban areas. We monitor the speeds and collisions afterwards. We have seen really good signs on a lot of our stuff. We see a big reduction in fatalities in all of the areas we treat. We monitor them. We published a report earlier this year.

TII publishes the report, does it?

We published a report in February of this year that looked at different locations and different schemes we had applied. It shows the reduction in collisions arising from different measures we have applied.

I have noticed that some of the documents mention the inability to share information, that is, collision data. TII has also mentioned that there are 77 wrong-way driving incidents a year. Does TII know how many of those incidents result from genuine driver confusion as opposed to deliberate dangerous behaviour?

First, that is an average over five years. Frankly, we do not know. That is a common challenge worldwide. It is only where an incident results in a collision occurring that you can determine whether it involved intentional wrong-way driving or whether it was inadvertent. Statistics from Germany identify that approximately 50% of incidents where a collision occurred involved deliberate or intentional wrong-way driving. Figures from the United States suggest a slightly lower percentage, although it is still of that order. However, this only applies to incidents where a collision occurs. It is only then that data is collected on site.

An Garda Síochána does not share the data with the RSA. Does it share it with TII? Will the national vehicle driver file, road traffic and other matters Bill address the issues in respect of data gathering?

From the perspective of the interaction between TII motorway operators in the control centre and An Garda Síochána, we are really collating the information for our own purposes. We are not directly part of the data sharing process between the Garda and the RSA, although we do ultimately receive data on that.

Does the RSA believe the Bill will address the data sharing issues?

Does Ms Burns want to take that question and address the detail of the data?

We now have a legal basis in place to share data with the local authorities. The Bill will give the local authorities a legal basis to receive the data. It will address that issue. However, data is shared in other manners. We share data with the Department of Transport's support office for wider dissemination. It looks at locations of interest and shares that data onwards. We have also published on our website a map showing the location of injury collisions up to 2024. If I may, I might just address the question about-----

I ask Ms Burns to please be quick.

Since 2021, there have been nine fatal collisions in cases where a driver drove the wrong way. In five of those cases, the driver was aged 80 or older. While we do not know definitively, it is likely that, in those five cases, the older driver may have become confused. International research shows that older drivers may go down the wrong way if they have a medical condition. These would not be deliberate incidents. There were two incidents where a teenager was driving. This includes the most recent 2026 incident, which resulted in five fatalities and four serious injuries. We know that one incident was deliberate. There were two other incidents where drivers in their 40s went the wrong way. In one of those cases, it was documented in the record that the driver was exceeding a safe speed. We have some information from the Garda in that regard.

I thank Ms Burns. I am out of time. The last question I wanted to ask goes beyond wrong-way driving. What is the single biggest intervention TII and the RSA would like to see the Government take to address road fatalities? They have seven seconds.

From the TII's point of view, it would be providing more divided roads on our single-carriageway network.

I am sorry; TII would like more-----

We would like more divided roads or motorways on our single-carriageway network. Our single-carriageway network accounts for 92% of our fatalities and serious injuries. Motorways are really safe.

Divided roads are also safe. We need to address the single-carriageway network.

I am conscious that the media companies are appearing before the Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport at 12.30 p.m. I want to give a big shout out. It is a fact that social media companies are continuing to allow content to be put online that glorifies car theft, joyriding and extreme dangerous driving and it is about time that social media companies take responsibility, immediately take this content down and not allow any content like this to appear online.

This is really about driver behaviour. Unfortunately, for many drivers on Irish roads, the rules of the road are simply optional. Many believe that they will not be caught, so for me and in the context of the work of this committee, enforcement is crucial. Enforcement shapes driver behaviour and until such time as we strengthen in a meaningful way our roads policing unit, we will continue to have the types of challenge we are talking about today. We have one member of a roads policing unit for every 100 kilometres of public road. In my own constituency of Tipperary, which is part of the Tipperary-Clare division, we have one member of the roads policing unit for every 250 kilometres of road.

I have a couple of questions for the RSA first and then for TII. I come back to our road safety strategy and our targets, which are based on the 2024 number of fatalities. I think it is a target of 72 or fewer fatalities and a target of 630 or fewer serious injuries. We are nearing the end of September and 139 lives have been lost. Is the 2030 target now realistically achievable? In the view of the RSA, what changes need to happen in order to achieve the targets of the 2030 strategy?

I will take the Cathaoirleach's question on the RSA response. The targets by 2030 are ambitious and we are no different to any EU member state.

Does Mr. Waide think they are achievable, yes or no?

Yes. As to how they are achievable, it entails greater enforcement, as the Cathaoirleach rightly points out.

Does Mr. Waide think enforcement is the number one issue?

It entails greater enforcement, greater education and awareness and greater engineering. This means that the funding and resources need to support all of the agencies involved. I can only speak for the RSA and our part of that greater education and awareness. The Cathaoirleach mentioned social media. Whether we as agencies or committee members like it or not, social media is a part of society and the RSA as an organisation agrees that social media companies need to be curbed.

May I come back to enforcement? Are the 2030 targets achievable with the current strength of our roads policing unit, given how important we both agree enforcement is?

There needs to be greater enforcement. The RSA has always being supportive of An Garda Síochána and we would advocate that it be given sufficient resources to make sure that greater enforcement is delivered. Resources do not just mean road policing officers, though. It also means technology, that is, the use of cameras. My colleagues and I have spoken to the committee before about safety cameras. It is not just about speed. It is about cameras that deliver monitoring of seat belt use, poor behaviours and using a mobile phone while driving as well as monitoring speeding. More of that is required.

I agree with Mr. Waide about the use of technology but, unfortunately, technology will not catch or capture a drunk or drug driver, which is why the physical garda and that visibility are so important.

In its submission, the RSA tells us that it identified more than 11,000 road traffic casualties over five years and that compares with 7,700 serious injuries in the Garda collision record, so there is a big discrepancy in terms of the RSA's data and An Garda Síochána's data. There is a substantial difference there, particularly on cycling data. The RSA says that 565 cyclists were hospitalised while the Garda is telling us that the figure is only 230. Are we underestimating the true scale of serious injury on Irish roads in terms of how we are reporting it, given that big difference between the RSA's records and An Garda Síochána's records?

We are. I will pass over to my colleague Ms Burns in terms of the details.

The two data sources are complementary. The European Commission has required all member states to report not only on police data but also on hospital data. That is to account for the fact that not all casualties are reported to the police and, therefore, recorded. Gardaí are not medics, so they cannot identify a serious injury. It is particularly prevalent in the case of cyclists because in many cases, cyclists are seriously injured in single vehicle conditions, so there is no direct impact with a motor vehicle.

Turning to TII, we have identified 30 locations for this project. Are there roughly 800 entry and exit points on our motorway network? Why were those 30 chosen? Was a risk assessment carried out? Will we publish the 30 locations? Were those 30 locations identified before the fatalities this year? Has TII reassessed whether that figure of 30 is sufficient?

I am not quite sure as to the particular number of 30. What we are doing-----

That is taken directly from TII's opening statement. Is it 30?

Not from the opening statement. I have seen that figure of 30 being quoted. We are working with a European pilot project in which we are deploying different detection technologies at different locations.

Why were those approximately 30 locations chosen?

One has to pilot to determine the effectiveness in the first instance. Scalable and more widespread deployment really has to await being able to determine how effective the different technologies are.

Has there been a reassessment of those locations since the fatalities?

It was not particularly related to specific fatality clusters because we do not have very specific fatality or junction locations that would point to being those being less safe than others.

When I read the submissions, I got a sense that there was no obvious solution to preventing drivers from driving the wrong way or alerting drivers to when wrong-way driving occurs. There seem to be different approaches in different locations.

There is no single silver bullet solution from a technological perspective that can resolve all of the challenges associated with dealing with wrong-way driving. The other aspect of that is that Ireland is no different to its counterparts in Europe. Over the past weeks and months, we have spoken with colleagues in the likes of Austria, which is highlighted as one of the better countries regarding its efforts to deal with the same problem we have. The feedback comes back that, while technology will in the future allow us, through the use of connected vehicles and co-operative intelligent transport systems, C-ITS, to communicate with vehicles, to communicate between control centres and vehicles, and for vehicles to communicate among themselves, but that will take time. Currently, only 4% or 5% of the fleet of cars has the required technology, so we must await the future scenario, perhaps ten or 15 years hence, where the broader kind of deployment within the fleet of these communications technologies will allow immediate transmission of messages and alerts to drivers.

In the meantime, the technologies we use will go some way towards being able to better alert drivers, There are many factors, including the source of wrong way driving. As I adverted to earlier, about 40% arises from people going the wrong way down the slip road, but equally, people can go the correct way down the slip road and turn right. People can turn right on the main line.

Do TII and the RSA believe they are currently doing everything they can to prevent this?

From a TII perspective, I would say "Yes". In terms of the technologies we have deployed and the organisational structures we have put in place in regard to the motorway operations control centre, I think we have. We have put ourselves on par with our peers in Europe as regards our capabilities of dealing with this problem. On that, the previous committee visited the motorway control centre at the Dublin tunnel and I extend an invitation on behalf of TII to committee, when it can find the time, to come and see what we do.

I thank Mr. Maher. I have so many questions. Has TII considered mobile phone alerts? They are used in other countries to alert people where there are geographical or weather events. Has TII examined the possibility of using that method to alert drivers who are on the motorway?

Yes, we have. We have deployed alerts on our VMS, the overhead electronic signs that you will see. The challenge is we do not have a wide deployment across rural areas, for example, but we have quite an intense deployment around the M50 and certain other sections of the network.

On mobile phone technology, the European pilot I referred to involved sending messages to a sample of the fleet involving onboard units but also using mobile phone app technology. That was done on a small group of vehicles but it successfully proved the capability. The first step is to determine whether we can effectively do this, and I think we have done that. Phone alerts are potentially a means of communicating with people.

I think we need to hear more about those types of solutions. Mr. Walsh talked about changes to the driver test. It will not surprise him that I wanted to ask about the new rules coming in on 1 November. The last time he was here, I asked had the RSA written to the second permit holders because the new rules will say that a learner permit holder must, after four years, take a test. I am looking for an update on whether that is going ahead on 1 November, whether second learner permit holders been written to and how this is going to be managed. At the moment there are only 21 centres with a waiting time of ten weeks or under. How will the RSA manage that?

Everything is being developed technically so the technology piece is running. We have communicated with people who are affected. Last week we also started a national campaign both on radio and online digital media advising customers of what is happening. The event started last year. This time last year we were down below ten weeks. When the announcement was made around multiple learner permits, we saw an immediate spike of people who had seven, eight or nine learner permits coming into the service because they had to take a test. We have been addressing the number of people who have required a test and who have had held multiple learner permits. As far as I remember, up to the end of August, about 25,000 people of the initial group we identified when we went live this time last year have taken a test. There are still more people who need to take tests and they will continue to do so right up until 1 November 2027, because today, if I want to renew my learner permit, I can renew it all the way up to 30 October 2026. I can carry it for another year, which means I get another year of an extension of when I have to take my test.

In relation to the service itself, the service is currently running at the end of August at 11.6 weeks nationally-----

Thank you, Mr. Walsh. We need to move on.

I thank the Cathaoirleach. I detect some frustration from RSA in particular about the road deaths. As we know, road deaths are increasing. There is an average of 1,400 collisions per year. There seems to be a rise in younger driver fatalities. From what some of the witnesses are saying, it seems that 48% of weekend fatalities are between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. and nearly half, 44%, of fatalities are at the weekends. We are talking about a quarter of fatalities occur in a ten-hour period on Saturdays and Sundays. Out of all the hours in the week, 24 multiplied by seven, in that short ten-hour period, there is over a quarter of fatalities.

The numbers of gardaí are down in road traffic. I know the witnesses are supportive of An Garda Síochána but they are calling for more support for An Garda Síochána. Do they think that there are enough supports? Is the Garda doing enough with the numbers it has in identifying the peak times that people are getting killed on our roads? We have heard that there were no fatalities for wrong-way driving on motorways last year. Most of the fatalities come on regional roads, certainly not on the motorways overall. Is enough being done at night-time, particularly in that ten-hour period, out of the 168 hours in the week. Is enough being done by the Garda?

I will address the RSA research. The Deputy rightly points out a large proportion of the fatalities occur at the weekend between 8 p.m. and the early hours of the morning. The RSA provides the research and the data. The members of the committee have the information and will have the opportunity to question An Garda Síochána, it is hoped. We are supporting An Garda Síochána for more enforcement. Let us be specific on the data here. We have 26 counties and, on top of that, we have four cities. There are circa 650 roads policing officers. If you do the maths, and TII can tell us how many kilometres of road are in every one of those 26 counties, whether it is late on a Sunday night or early on a Tuesday morning, the kilometres of roads do not change, whether they are national or rural roads. The scale of this needs that increased enforcement, education and engineering. This is against the context of 20% more vehicles in this country than previously. There is 5% more kilometres of road, a 34% increase in driver licences and a 19% increase in the population. We as a country are growing, which is good, but we need to actually support-----

Does Mr. Waide think the visibility on regional and local roads is enough, given that people are being killed in those ten hours out of 168?

On visible roads policing, and other EU member states will support this, the RSA research and the deterrence theory confirm - I will pass this question to my colleague Ms Burns - what the Deputy is asking about. It confirms the need for visible roads policing.

Before Mr. Waide’s colleague comes in, he said that the RSA had requested an identifier for alcohol and drug samples from An Garda Síochána, provided by the Medical Bureau of Road Safety, to distinguish between samples from drivers involved in collisions versus drivers tested as part of other enforcement. Is he satisfied with the answer the RSA got from the Garda? Is he looking for the committee's support in that request he sent to the Garda? Has the RSA got a response?

I will ask Ms Burns to confirm.

I thank the Deputy for the question. I will explain the background to that. To reference the first question initially, we know that An Garda Síochána is struggling with its resource capacity. That is well-documented in the media. What is important is that, when it has fewer resources, they be strategically employed at high-risk times and locations. The Deputy correctly referenced weekends, late at night and early mornings as being high-risk periods. We cannot talk about those high-risk periods without talking about drink driving. We know that drink driving has not gone away. We know from coroner data for the five-year period up to 2020 that more than a third of drivers killed had a positive toxicology result for alcohol. Most of them were at very significant levels, and the accidents occurred, in the main, late at night or early in the morning.

I believe that was 35%, according to Alcohol Action Ireland.

Correct. We also have more recent data - this touches on the Deputy’s second question - that we published over the June bank holiday weekend. It relates to alcohol testing results among surviving drivers. As the Deputy knows, it is mandatory for a driver to be tested at the scene of a serious collision. Of the drivers tested from 2021 to 2025, 7% tested positive for alcohol. One might think that does not sound too bad, but that was more than 300 drivers who were drunk driving and where someone was killed or seriously injured. What we do not have is the levels. That is where our recommendation came from in terms of having a conversation with the Garda and the Medical Bureau of Road Safety.

From some of the surveys of drivers, a lot of them feel that they are unlikely to meet a garda out on the roads at the weekends at night. Is it that the Government is not giving the Garda enough resources or the Garda is not prioritising visibility on regional roads at that time of night?

I ask Ms Burns to answer briefly.

It needs to be strategic and based on the data and on high-risk times and locations.

Does it need to be improved?

I believe that the Garda needs to be supported to have more resources for that.

There need to be more gardaí on the roads, including regional roads, at those times.

At high-risk locations and times, yes.

Okay. Finally-----

I ask the Deputy to conclude.

Ms Burns was going to finish with my second question. I asked-----

The Deputy can come back in on the second round.

This is very brief.

He is doing what the Cathaoirleach does.

I am learning from the best.

The RSA asked for our support for questions to An Garda Síochána about getting the Medical Bureau of Road Safety to distinguish. Did it get a reply?

We are organising a meeting. There has been a change in-----

The RSA has received no reply yet. That is why it is looking for our support.

We need to meet with the Garda. We will be setting up a meeting with it in October to discuss that.

Good morning, everyone. I apologise at the outset for my timekeeping. There are about three overlapping meetings going on. I have been following the proceedings so far.

At the outset, as I am sure others have said, my thoughts are very much with Niamh and Alma Kinsella, Ella Hendricken, and young Yemi, who continue to fight for their health following that awful incident on the M9. I have very strong views on this that I have expressed on the air waves, so I will not go over them again, but in my eyes, they are the true victims of that day. Whatever we do here going forward, they need to be central, along with the many other victims of those mindless things happening on our roads that are putting good, decent people at risk and taking lives.

There are a few matters I want to raise. I have been looking into how other countries and jurisdictions handle this. I will reference the state of Ohio in the United States. There are two reasons I bring this up. I brought it up with the Road Safety Authority the last time it was before us. A Netflix programme called "The Crash" aired this summer. It referred to a 17-year-old. The matter is not sub judice, as the court case is finished, so I can talk about it. Mackenzie Shirilla, a 17-year-old, drove a car at 100 mph into a brick building. It was thought to be an awful teenage accident but it turned out she had been tried, prosecuted and convicted for murder.

What was interesting in that programme was that it was forensically reconstructed. There was so much data in the car, which I was unaware of until I saw this programme. There was a black box, which is officially called an “event data recorder”. They were able to measure at what point brakes were applied or if they were applied, when gears changed up or down, and points of acceleration. Everything she had done in those last few moments as she sped down this road was forensically analysed, recorded and presented. This was all new to me, but then I realised that this technology had been in cars rolling off production lines. It has been an EU requirement for the past four years, yet we seem to be tone deaf to it here in Ireland. There is a whole load of in-car technology, including the ability to restrict cars. I delved further into this and it has been trialled in Shannon, County Clare, which is my constituency. There is a little chip, as it were. When you pass through a 50 km/h sign, for example, cars should slow down to that speed. They are automatically restricted. Why is it that there is all this technology and we are not embracing or using it? It is latent technology sitting under the bonnet of a car and it is not being utilised in Ireland to keep motorists and pedestrians safe.

We have discussed technology with this committee in the past. A lot of evolving technology exists in vehicles, but it is not that Ireland is the only country not adopting this technology. The automotive industry has had a different approach to the European Transport Safety Council, which advocates for technology. There seems to be a reluctance from the automotive industry to work with the likes of individual EU member states and authorities such as the Road Safety Authority and the Department of Transport. There is a reluctance at a European level to deploy this technology.

Respectfully, the manufacturer has been legally compelled for the past four years to have all of this in the car it manufactures. If a person buys a new car today, it is equipped with all of this technology to keep them and others safe when it is being driven, but why is it latent? Why is it not being used in Ireland?

I will pass to my colleague, Mr. Walsh, who can speak on safer vehicles.

I appreciate that older cars do not have it but newer cars do.

Absolutely.

The Deputy is referring to the signage recognition system in cars. It has been around for quite a long time. It works in conjunction with the cruise control system of the vehicle whereby it recognises a sign and the vehicle actually reduces speed if the vehicle is under cruise control. However, the individual can press the throttle and override that. As of May of this year, it has become mandatory in all vehicles within the European Union that there be an incessant ringing if the driver is going over the speed limit. Those technologies are in the cars, and people can decide to use them or not. A driver can override them with the press of a throttle, no different to anti-lock brakes. They are an assistance system on the vehicle. However, the one that is really interesting for me is the notification that became mandatory from May and is in most vehicles that have been sold in the past couple of years. When you are driving, be it in a 30 km/h, 50 km/h or 60 km/h zone, you will get this audible bell ringing in the vehicle that actually tells you that you are exceeding the speed limit. It is quite common on-----

I will jump in. I thank Mr. Walsh for that detailed response.

The RSA needs to have a much stronger position on this. I sat on the health committee in the last Dáil and all the time the HSE was advising the Minister on what changes he had to make. Now Deputy Carroll MacNeill is the Minister, but it was not just dealing the here and now, the HSE was getting ahead of things, publishing memos and bringing it forward. The RSA needs to have a very strong position here. This technology has been sitting in some cars, including these event data recorders, for four years and they are not used in Irish courtrooms yet. The RSA needs to have a very strong position.

On outlying scenarios, we are the only country in the entire EU where tractors are still permitted on motorways. I am a farmer and we need to go cautiously here. We need to invest in underpasses and ways of getting them around. However, something I and I am sure others have experienced is when you are going along the motorway, there is a slight distraction and suddenly there is a tractor going in front of you. The only requirement is that they have the ability to drive at 50 km/h. It does not say they have to drive at 50 km/h, only that the vehicle has to have the ability. That is very dangerous. You could be going at 120 km/h and there is a vehicle going slowly in front of you in the main lane, not the hard shoulder. We are outliers there.

It is about trying to bring down the statistics. We are not blaming the RSA. Loads of this is incidental, it is accidental and it is driver behaviour but there has to be a bigger picture here. It is wrong some technologies are not being fully used here. Can I just finally ask in terms of technology-----

I apologise to the Deputy, but I will add to his observation that it is not just one aspect and it is not just the RSA; it is interconnected. TII may want to comment on this. The vehicles need to be interconnected with the infrastructure, with the roads. We are here to talk about motorway driving and wrong-way driving. Mr. Walsh is correct that the technology is there but if the vehicles are not interconnected with the infrastructure, we will not benefit and we will not move the dial on this.

I hope I will get in more, but Mr. Waide spoke earlier about alerts on phones and things like this, but is there any alert that goes straight to An Garda Síochána? The last thing I want to ask is whether there is guidance to be given to motorists here. We know what to do if our car breaks down on the motorway. You pull in, you get over the crash barrier if you can or you stay in your vehicle. What is the guidance if a car is coming towards you in the wrong direction? Will the RSA tell the general public what they should be doing? Do you veer left or right?

Just very quickly.

Ms Ferguson can confirm the guidance we have for the public.

It is in the opening statement.

Yes, we provided it in the opening statement. It is available on our website and we are promoting it across social media channels at the minute. The guidance has always been there. We had a motorway booklet we developed in 2018. We had TV ads on how to safely join a motorway and things like that. It is also in the rules of the road. That information is available.

Go raibh míle maith agaibh ar fad as ucht teacht isteach. I will start with TII. I thank its representatives very much for the comprehensive description. The expansion of the motorway network has been one of the things that has been strong in terms of our infrastructural transformation in the early 21st century. In light of the recent news stories relating to these incidents, one of the queries I have had from constituents is whether there are hardware solutions that can be put in place on the entry and exit ramps for motorways. I mean directional spikes or slow ramps for vehicles that are coming onto a motorway on the wrong side. Is that something TII has in mind or has explored?

It is something we have investigated but as I said, I think, in a previous response here it is not something that is deployed. The use of stingers, spikes or whatever on entrance ramps is not something that is used in other jurisdictions. There are many reasons for not using that kind of deployment. I understand that at speed they can be unsafe. As for putting them on to the on-ramps, as I said earlier, there are times when An Garda Síochána, the fire brigade or ambulances need to travel the wrong way onto a motorway. They would be an obvious impediment in that situation. Again, we must bear in mind that statistics indicate about 40% of wrong-way accesses onto a motorway happen on the ramps, coming down the off-ramp against traffic. The remainder arise through incidents such as people going the right way down making a right turn, or people on the main line doing a U-turn or a U-turn at a toll plaza. There is a whole spectrum of different circumstances.

I thank Mr. Maher for that. It is important that is articulated in the public, because there is a lot of public discussion about that. Those statistics and those numbers he has called out are extremely important.

I want to tie to the vehicle messaging system I see deployed to great success across motorways. In the incidents where a wrong-way driver is detected by cameras on the on-ramp or the off-ramp, does it happen currently that there are warning messages sent to the VMS stations on that stretch of motorway to warn drivers who are driving the right way, especially if it is not immediately visible? Is that deployed and if so how many times has it been in the last two years?

It is deployed. I do not have statistics as to how many times it was deployed.

What is the nature of what comes up on the screen? Does it say "Attention, wrong-way driver approaching"?

I think it says "Oncoming vehicle" or something like that. I can find the exact wording for the Deputy. It is something along the lines of "Beware oncoming vehicle". It is some order of words like that.

How confident are the officials, in terms of the number of wrong-way driver detections there have been on motorways in the last two years, that there has been a perfect overlap such that messages were deployed where messaging terminals are available to match that? Is it 100%?

I would say we are not confident because that is a general aspect of wrong-way driving and again it is common across jurisdictions. Typically, the statistics we have underestimate the real occurrence of wrong-way driving. Many wrong-way driving incidents occur. Drivers come on at one junction and go off at the next, say in an M50 context. When we detect it through cameras, reports from members of the public or the Garda, our control centre is capable of deploying those messages.

Are they deployed as a matter of course or is there a human decision made to deploy them?

There has to be human intervention at the moment but it is literally a keystroke in the control centre in Dublin.

If the officials could follow up with the committee afterwards I would be interested in the number of incidents where TII detected wrong-way driving and the number of incidents in which these warning messages were deployed in the last two years. In the interests of public confidence we need to be seen approaching this very proactively. I appreciate Mr. Maher's responses on the hardware solution.

Turning to the RSA, will the officials give me a description of the outreach and education pieces it is doing with young men in particular on the dangers of wrong-way motorway driving and the threat to life it involves? What is the extent of the work that has been done over the last two years?

I thank the Deputy. Over the last number of years we have run a number of campaigns on motorway driving. For wrong-way driving in particular we have a campaign running at the minute which is targeting younger drivers, especially across social media. We have quite a lot of information targeting young drivers. They are a quarter of the fatalities. I can ask my colleague to talk to the Deputy about the numbers.

How successful would the officials rate the engagement campaigns the RSA has had to engage young men about the dangers of this kind of driving?

Does the Deputy mean in relation to all road safety, as opposed to specifically-----

Road safety first of all and then this particular subset.

Very good. We track all of our campaigns to see if we are reaching the right audience, if they are getting the message and if they are perceiving it as effective. We are quite confident the message is getting through. It is something that happens over a long period. We are trying to influence attitudes to try to change behaviour. It takes a long time because it is ingrained behaviour, but we say it is not just education. It has been mentioned here and we have said it before but it is everyone working together. It is education, enforcement and engineering.

A hundred percent. I would be interested in seeing the effectiveness statistics for those two campaigns over the last two years if they could be shared with the committee afterwards as well, please. I was struck when the RSA earlier mentioned the advice on what to do when you see an oncoming vehicle on the motorway. I had never seen that advice before. There is probably a piece of work to be done there about cascading that. I appreciate this work is being done but we are in a space now where for public confidence we need to be seen to be proactively doing it. I strongly encourage the RSA to think about how it cascades that sort of information about what to do if you see an oncoming vehicle. Our motorway network is an extremely valuable asset. We need to give people the confidence to use it at all hours of the day and that means overcommunicating with regard to that as well.

My final question is for both agencies as it concerns the national camera strategy. We had the launch of it.

We had the Garda Commissioner before the committee before the summer speaking about how An Garda Síochána is now aligning with the RSA and local authorities and trying to make detecting offences using cameras more seamless. Can both agencies very quickly give an overview of their views on the direction of travel with the national camera strategy? Do we need to expedite progress? What do either of the agencies want to get from the national camera strategy in terms of directly affecting and changing road safety outcomes? TII might respond first.

It is probably an aspect that colleagues of mine would be better able to comment on than I am. I am not the representative on the camera strategy.

Could I ask Mr. Maher to go back to his colleagues and ask them to correspond on that?

I will indeed. I thank the Deputy.

Just quickly, the RSA.

The RSA is on the leadership group, and it provides the research. The research confirms the deterrence theory and the benefit of cameras, not just for detecting speed but also for detecting mobile phone use and non-seatbelt wearing. That is how the RSA contributes.

I thank the representatives of both the RSA and TII for being with us this morning and for the very detailed material provided in advance of the meeting today. Mr. Waide said wrong-way driving is relatively rare. Mr. Maher noted there is an average of 77 recorded incidents over, I think, maybe a six-year period. Are we seeing an increase in incidents or have they been relatively stable across that period?

They seem to be at a reasonable plateau, if I could call it that. They do not seem to be increasing in number greatly.

I understand from Mr. Waide's statement that the RSA does not get a breakdown from An Garda Síochána as to whether a wrong-way driving event is a driver error event or a risk-taking event. Is that correct?

That is correct.

Is there a reason that distinction is not provided to the RSA in the statistics?

That is an important question. I will ask Ms Burns to answer in terms of that.

I thank the Deputy for the question. I alluded to this earlier. On the provisional data we receive from An Garda Síochána, that information is captured at a relatively early stage of the investigation, when it has not gone to inquest and all of the details are not available. What we have are preliminary data. I said earlier that in nine fatal collisions where a driver drove the wrong way, five of the drivers were aged 80 and above. There is nothing in the record to indicate that was risk-taking behaviour and international research suggests that type of incident is typically the result of error and potentially due to confusion or a medical event. In respect of one of the incidents, however, it is documented that the driver was exceeding a safe speed, and the 2026 incident clearly involved risk-taking behaviour. We have some preliminary information. We need to wait for the coroner's findings and the completed investigation to be more definitive.

It strikes me that the responses from both the RSA and TII, and all of society, to a wrong-way driving event that involves risk-taking and one involving driver error are very different.

Correct.

The RSA seems to have quite a bit of data relevant to this. Is that data the RSA is having to work through itself rather than data that is specifically gathered on an institutional basis? It strikes me that in understanding how we respond to this, getting a breakdown of the causes of wrong-way driving incidents is really important. Is there a GDPR issue here? I ask because, in the context of the national vehicle and driver file Bill that is coming through at the moment, there was a GDPR issue that is being resolved around the sharing of collision data between local authorities and An Garda Síochána. Is there a data protection issue here or is it a separate issue?

I do not believe there is a data protection issue here specifically. Related to that, and as noted in the letter we submitted to the Cathaoirleach in July, we must acknowledge that there is a time lag in the conduct of the coroner's inquest and the subsequent transfer to us of more definitive information on the contributory factors to fatal collisions. It is something we have raised with An Garda Síochána in the past and we would like to engage with it again to see if it could give us an early indication of the more definitive contributory factors to fatal collisions before the coroner's inquest.

I thank Ms Burns for that. We have an assistant commissioner from An Garda Síochána coming before the committee in the next two or three weeks, so we might raise that issue. Getting a breakdown of exactly what causes a wrong-way driving event is very important.

To add to Ms Burns's response, other jurisdictions give early indicators.

So it is doable.

It is doable. I cannot speak for An Garda Síochána, but the committee will have the opportunity hear from it.

We will follow that up. I thank Mr. Waide.

As part of the education and awareness work the RSA does, does it examine social media posts that seek to glorify the risk-taking element of wrong-way driving? Is the RSA looking at TikTok and other platforms and trying to identify this material?

Through our agency, we have a brand safety and suitability policy, so we look at that. Given the nature of the algorithms on these social platforms, if somebody looks at that content, it is going to be recommended to that person. It does not necessarily mean we would see it, but we are monitoring those platforms.

Once somebody looks at it, more of it is directed to that person. That is a bigger problem. I understand TikTok is before another committee today and will hopefully be asked about that. Has the RSA ever contacted a social media platform about content?

We regularly use the report function within a platform. We have been in contact with TikTok in relation to this issue and the things we would like to have.

What has the response generally been?

TikTok came back to us as recently as yesterday. We had made some recommendations and need to look at the response. It is hoping to work collaboratively with us and, I know, with An Garda Síochána.

I am not specifically referencing the tragedy on the M9, but is the RSA seeing engagement? Is it seeing changes in approach? Is it seeing posts being taken down? That is the ultimate question.

Yes, we are. The number of posts that have been taken down has been widely reported. What we would like to see is the reach of that content, the number of people who viewed it and who shared it. That kind of information would be much more helpful in assessing the impact of the content.

The RSA cannot get those metrics.

We do not have that information. The social media platforms would have it. It is their own information.

But they will not-----

I am happy to share some statistics. On the information that came through from TikTok late last night, we can share that for the first six months of this year, TikTok took down more than 42,000 videos. It has confirmed that to us.

Is that all videos or just videos-----

Dangerous activity, so not specifically dangerous driving but dangerous activity.

Is that globally or in Ireland?

In Ireland only. Some other statistics are that 99.6% of that content was removed proactively, 84% before any views and 89% or 90% in the first 24 hours.

That is really useful. I thank Ms Burns.

Social media companies need to get better at stopping videos being posted in the first instance, as opposed to having a key performance indicator based on how quickly they take them down.

Once they have gone up, the damage is done.

I think we would all agree with that.

I thank everyone for coming in and for the opening addresses. I want to bring it back to TII first. It was said that this is a societal problem and that we cannot simply police our way out of it or use technology alone. I wonder whether enough is being done. This follows on from Deputy Moynihan's questions. I ask this as a mother of two teenage boys and as a former youth worker. Is enough being done to target young males who are at risk of engaging in dangerous driving? Ms Ferguson said she was confident the messaging was going out, but is there evidence to support that? When we look at the statistics, we see that 57% of those who died were people under 45 and four out of five were male. Those are shocking statistics. Is the messaging actually meeting people where they are at? Is there enough investment? I am not talking about profiling, but is any research being done on early intervention programmes? Have some of the young people driving these cars been in receipt of early intervention family support? Has there been Tusla involvement? What is their level of educational attainment?

Are they living with some level of disadvantage? That is my query. This is coming from a youth worker point of view as well. It is disappointing that youth work was not included in this, in terms of education provision.

Furthermore, a report came out from the National Youth Council of Ireland, NYCI, yesterday which said that nine out of ten young people do not feel there are employment opportunities here and seven out of ten young people say they want to go abroad. Has any research been done on preventative measures? Is it targeted? Are the witness organisations looking at where young males are in particular, so it can be targeted to address not only the consequences of dangerous driving but also the reasons they are doing it in the first place? I understand there is risk-taking behaviour, the brain is not developed and so on, but some people are being dragged along who just hop into a car and end up in these situations as well. Is there enough investment and research going into the why? That is open to whoever wants to respond.

On the behaviour of young people, especially young males - Ms Burns or Ms Ferguson can confirm this - we did a study on whether it was working and we saw a positive improvement in the behaviour of young males, but it does not solve the problem. I absolutely agree with the Senator. The challenge is to support those young people to change behaviours, not just on the road. It is an ongoing challenge and it seems, for us as a system, to be getting even more challenging. The RSA saw some improvement in recent years. We did a report, but a lot more can be done.

Would the sharing of information by An Garda Síochána help? Some young people might be involved with the criminal justice system and they might be known to An Garda Síochána. Maybe through liaison or justice programmes, is it important that An Garda Síochána share information about whether it is risk-taking behaviour or intentional?

The way the RSA has engaged is that we have delivered improvements to the transition year programme and we have launched a new junior cycle programme. That is in schools. The Senator's focus is more on potentially leveraging that material and knowledge with the likes of the probation service and organisations that-----

Yes, and youth services, such as alternative education programmes like Youthreach and community training centres for young people who do not fit into mainstream schools.

In the past year, the RSA established the youth forum, which involves positive engagement with young people, but it is not necessarily the cohort of young people the Senator is referring to, so we will take that away as a consideration.

I thank Mr. Waide. I am also asking for evidence and how it can be measured. I know from working with young people that it is very hard to measure the impact you are having, but targeted measures work and throwing money at it, for example by resourcing youth services, educators and justice projects, works as well. Throwing money at those things and at family support works. I am talking about early intervention. Would Mr. Maher like to say anything about that?

TII is a motorway operator or manager. The broader societal challenges the Senator is alluding to probably do not sit best with us.

I will give members an additional two minutes.

I asked a question about tractors on motorways, but we did not have time to get it answered so in the time I have left, I will ask TII about exits on the M18 motorway around Ennis. There have been four fatalities at Darragh, Ennis. There has been a lot of correspondence, but very little positivity has come back from TII on it. Does it have plans for that?

I appreciate there is a lot of work to do to design and build a motorway system at Banogue on the way to Cork on the N20, but it is wrong in this day and age that a dairy herd has to cross the second most important route in Ireland twice a day and there is no provision for that. Will TII answer those questions first, followed by the RSA?

On the first one, yes, a scheme is being developed to deal with one of the motorway junctions at Ennis. I will have to come back to the Deputy with the exact detail about where it is, but a scheme is being developed. Darragh is on the N68. Maybe my colleague knows that better.

I can deal with both of those. We are working with the motorway contractor to design the M18 junction, to increase the length of the slip roads. It is not totally possible because there are issues on one side of it with gantries and a structure, but we have a design ready to go and it has been passed to Clare County Council to go through Part 8 and it could be constructed in the next year or two.

That is good.

We are dealing with Clare County Council on Darragh as well with regard to the-----

I can tell Mr. de Beer that it is not moving. We have spoken to the Minister. It has ground to a halt and lives are being lost.

A request to reduce the speed limit there has been put in. That has been-----

TII has resisted that.

I can check with my colleagues who deal with it, but as far as I am aware, we discussed it with the council recently.

At this committee in July, Mr. Walsh said "We have written to everybody who has a third permit and we are in the process of looking at who we write to next".

We will continue to write until 1 November to people who are affected by moving from a second to a third permit. We-----

Has the RSA written to second permit holders?

We have only written to third learner permit holders because they are the ones who are affected.

It is the same as in July.

Yes, it is the same situation as in July. We will continue to do that until 1 November. We have also overlaid a comprehensive media campaign - it cost about €450,000 - on the national airwaves and social media to try to encourage people to engage with the service. That will continue to run into next year.

I understand that. Someone who is on a second permit will have to take a test after 1 November.

People on a second learner permit can take their test at any time. They are at no risk. It is only when they cross into the third permit that they run into the problem where they need to have taken a test.

If they do so on 1 November, how long will they have to wait until they get a test?

It depends where they are. The national average is 11.6 weeks at the moment. Some 205 testers are active in the service, which is the highest number we have ever had. We are currently working on a plan to develop that further.

In areas like mine, it is 17 weeks and that is-----

No, the Deputy's area is not 17 weeks; it is at eight weeks. It was eight weeks and 12 weeks in Mulhuddart at the end of August.

Okay, the Cathaoirleach might give me a minute to verify that.

Minutes are scarce. Does Deputy Currie have an additional question? She has 12 seconds left.

Excuse me; on Mulhuddart, Maple House is at ten weeks and the other one, which is the smaller of the two, is at 17 weeks. Maple House is the much larger facility. There are two testers on the site that is at 17 weeks and five testers are active at the site that is at ten weeks.

I call Deputy Moynihan.

Mr. Walsh did not answer the question about the impact on-----

Deputy Moynihan.

What is the Tallaght number please, while Mr. Walsh has them?

It would be good to circulate the most up-to-date figures to the committee.

Tallaght is at 23 weeks. However, we have just opened a relief site at the Springfield Hotel in Leixlip to relieve Tallaght. I have moved some testers from Tallaght to the Springfield Hotel, which is why the number went up in Tallaght, but the Leixlip site at the Springfield Hotel is only at five weeks. We are in the process of moving people from Tallaght over to the Leixlip site.

What is the projection for the Tallaght number to come down?

It needs to be at ten weeks.

When will that happen?

I would love to have the service at ten weeks, but unfortunately, multiple learner permits, which we spoke about in the committee previously, is the big driver for the figures continuing to stay at a high level.

What is Mr. Walsh's best educated guess for when it will be at ten weeks?

Nationally?

No, in Tallaght.

I cannot say. It depends on the number of applications that come in on a given day. However, I expect to see Tallaght drop to the mid-teens in the next month, but the waiting time will correspondingly go up in Leixlip.

When the RSA was previously before the committee, we raised the learning driver mentor programme that was used in Queensland. Mr. Walsh mentioned in his earlier testimony the four hours driving under guidance. Has there been further thinking within the RSA about the recommendations that should be brought to the Government in the context of establishing such a programme?

We are meeting our colleagues from Queensland University in October. Ms Burns is leading that group. The outputs of that report or recommendation will be passed on to our colleagues in the Department of Transport. We hope we will then make the changes required as to how people learn to drive. There are definite areas in which we need to improve. I have referenced this point previously before the committee, but we need simulated driving. Consideration of how we treat motorway is an absolute necessity. There are other areas we need to consider. We must also consider how we treat novice drivers post qualification.

Mr. Walsh will be pushing for the mentor support programme with the Department.

I will be pushing for everything.

I thank the witnesses for coming. We have a massive problem with deaths on our roads. People are driving the wrong way on motorways. I heard Mr. Maher answering an earlier question and saying that it was not worthwhile doing something to stop vehicles driving the wrong way. Other countries have something that will cut the tyres if cars go the wrong way. They have used such a system for many years. I agree that if cars go down the right way, they can still turn the wrong way but we should at least stop as many of them as we can. I ask the organisations to look at that issue again. They are taking that approach in other countries. It has been in use in the USA for a long time. A priest who came home to Kerry recently told me about it. I want the organisations to examine the possibility and explore it fully.

I am concerned about another issue. Invariably, every weekend, some motorcyclist loses his or her life. Some 99.9% of these people are grand. They go out for a Sunday drive on their motorbikes. There are ever more of them doing it. Sadly, however, some of them lose their lives every weekend. It happened last weekend as it happens nearly every weekend. We need to look at that to see how it can be prevented or what can be done. We are losing lives and need to do something. It must be recognised that it is a serious problem. It may be only one motorcyclist who is killed in a week when four or five road users are killed, but it is still one and it is happening every other week.

I thank the Cathaoirleach for the opportunity to contribute. I thank the witnesses for coming. We have serious problems.

I thank the representatives of the RSA and TII for being here. What has been happening on our motorways is a new departure. Wrong-way driving is not a new thing, but what has been going on more recently with the tragedies here and the UK seems to be a result of the prevalence of social media, among other things.

Mr. Maher invited us to the motorway control centre. That would be a useful exercise. Will he talk me through the process? What happens the moment a vehicle is detected going the wrong way? Is that just from a slipway? What is the process after the detection?

I will ask my colleague, Mr. O'Sullivan, to take that question. He is probably closer-----

We generally become aware of a wrong-way driver through the telephone. The information either comes from An Garda Síochána or directly from a member of the public.

There are no systems in place to detect-----

There are some systems in place. There are cameras, etc., but the level of detection through those is lower. Most of the time, the information comes from the Garda through voice communication. When we get the notification, it is immediately logged in our motorway system, which takes a matter of seconds. The operator logs it and pushes it to the roadside. If there are signs in the area, the signs are lit up to warn oncoming drivers. It also goes to our website, which is perhaps less useful. We also push it out through a DATEX II feed, which makes it available for others that may want to pick it up, including technology companies, if they choose to. That is all done within 30 seconds.

Has TII analysed the possibility of having detection on all of the off-ramps and slipways?

We are trialling stuff like that, as has been alluded to and mentioned a few times in the statement. We are trialling stuff, but a lot of those technologies are not very mature. What ends up happening is that you get a lot of false readings, false positives or false negatives, where incidents are not actually occurring. One of the things we are looking at now is data fusion and the analysing of CCTV coverage to see whether we can make it work, and supplementing that with other data sources. Two things have come to pass looking at the situation in recent days. When raindrops are running down the camera lens, the technology thinks they are cars moving the wrong way. In another example, if an operator turns the camera from one side of the road to the other, the whole algorithm reads that everyone is moving the wrong way. While there are technologies there, they are only a tool in the whole picture. They are not foolproof. They are not-----

Is there anything that can be done with the likes of Google Maps or Apple Maps? Deputy Currie mentioned radio communications earlier. I know it is instantaneous and easier said than done. I appreciate that.

Certainly the connected vehicle thing that was alluded to and Google Maps are in the same space. That is where we are working at a European level with these kinds of company and through these various groups we are a part of to try to take a consistent approach. It has to be done consistently across Europe. These companies will not deal with individual countries and different standards. It all has to be done consistently. There is a lot of work going into that space to get these people into the tent. They are interested in a lot of this stuff. They are active participants in groups at a European level to get data into a format that they can use quickly and reliably.

I am out of time. Today's discussion has highlighted the scale of the challenge. I agree that there is no single solution. That is not to say we cannot explore all possible solutions. There is no doubt but that awareness and education can play a key role. Enforcement has a key role. Engineering and technology have key roles. I am reminded that a car travelling at 120 km/h the wrong way down a motorway is travelling 2 km every minute. No matter how good our response times, even if they are within one minute, that car has already travelled 2 km down the road. That reflects the real scale of the challenge.

We did not speak about deterrence and a new aggregated offence for dangerous driving where one is travelling the wrong way down a motorway. That is human endangerment and much stronger custodial sentences are required. Is that something the witnesses would support?

From an RSA point of view, we absolutely would. We shared our submission with this committee in respect of road safety reform. That is one of the areas of which we are supportive.

That is definitely the case from a TII perspective. As we outlined at the start, we are very much in the technology and operational mode, if you like. Clearly, that is part of the solution but the broader solution has to involve the full spectrum of enforcement, deterrence, etc.

We appreciate the witnesses' time. I thank TII and the RSA, and our witnesses. Time is against me. I propose that we publish the opening statements on the committee's website. Is that agreed? Agreed. I thank the witnesses for their time.