Yesterday, I was invited by the Rotary Club of Navan to the Just 1 Life event, which is the young person driver awareness programme. Approximately 350 students from St. Patrick's Classical School and Eureka Secondary School, Kells, packed the Solstice theatre in Navan. The event included presentations from An Garda Síochána, the roads policing sergeant, Dr. Ahmed Jamal, an on-call consultant from Navan and Drogheda, as well as a critical care nurse, ambulance call centre people and representatives of fire and rescue. It was clear when we arrived in the auditorium to see a crashed car on stage that nothing was held back.

At this event, you could have heard a pin drop during the presentations, such was the shock factor and the will to understand from all the students there. By the end of this year, the Rotary Club of Navan will have run this programme for 3,000 students. That is the amazing work it does. We cannot overestimate how important it is.

Meath County Council supports the Rotary Club in doing this incredible work. I could not help but think yesterday that it is a no-brainer to teach this in all schools. If we are aiming for zero deaths on our roads, we have to start with our youth.

I was surprised yesterday to learn that 25% of all the people arriving in accident and emergency departments with severe injuries were not wearing a seatbelt. In 2022, 27% of all fatalities in Ireland were not wearing a seatbelt. Some 17% of people say they do not wear a seatbelt in the back of a car. I cannot understand it. One in four people killed on Irish roads are between the ages of 16 and 25 and young drivers aged 18 to 24 have the highest collision rate. Males have much higher statistics: according to the RSA, almost eight in every ten driver fatalities are male, while six in every ten people who are injured are male. We need to educate the youth of our country about the seriousness of seatbelts, speed, drink and drug driving and speed limits. I would welcome the Minister for education, Deputy Foley, to come into this Chamber to tell us about the work she is doing to educate our young people and save their lives. At the end of his presentation, Dr. Jamal expressed, through tears, that this is not just about the driver, but rather the family they leave behind.