We are delighted to welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, to the House.

I thank Senators for raising this very important topic. I welcome the opportunity to address them today on road safety matters. I assure Senators that road safety is a priority for this Government. Road safety is also a shared priority across the EU and improving road safety remains one of the most important challenges facing transport policy across Europe. In that regard, I was honoured to welcome ministerial colleagues from other member states to Dublin where we discussed road safety matters, including how the deployment of connected and autonomous vehicles and intelligent transport systems could help to improve road safety outcomes across Europe.

Over the course of successive road safety strategies, we have witnessed a significant improvement in road safety. We reduced the number of road deaths from 472 in 1997 to 133 in 2021, the lowest level since records began in 1959. Tragically, more recent trends have been less positive. As of yesterday, 141 lives have been lost on Irish roads this year, which is 13 more than for the same period in 2025. We must do better and see a return to the progress we have seen previously. I will now set out some of the work that has been done this year and that is under way.

While I acknowledge that we have recently seen an increase in the number of deaths on our roads, it is also important to note that Ireland is consistently among the better performers in Europe on road safety, ranking in the five EU countries with the lowest number of deaths by population in recent comparative data.

However, there can be no complacency while lives are still being lost. Ireland's road safety policy is grounded in the safe system approach, which recognises that road safety requires co-ordinated action across speed, roads and roadsides, vehicles, road users, post-collision response, enforcement, education and data. The fifth road safety strategy is our framework for action on road safety. It targets a 50% reduction in deaths and serious injuries this decade. The phase 2 action plan for 2025 to 2027 sets out 12 transformative actions and 77 supporting actions to help us achieve a reduction in road deaths. An example of the key actions being delivered through collaborative working is expanding network safety analysis of the road network to identify high-risk locations, guide investment decisions and prioritise safety interventions, including for the local road network. Other examples are implementing in full all actions in the phase 2 action plan based on the 2023 speed limit review, reviewing and overhauling our learning to drive curriculum and road user safety education more broadly, and developing legislation to facilitate improved road safety outcomes.

I chair the road safety leadership group, which drives delivery of the action plan at ministerial level and brings together the Departments of Transport and justice, An Garda Síochána, the Road Safety Authority, TII, the NTA, the Courts Service, the Medical Bureau of Road Safety, the Health and Safety Authority and local authorities. This extensive and broad membership reflects the number of significant road safety experts working together towards a common goal, which is Vision Zero.

We know that speeding is one of the deadliest behaviours on our roads and we are progressing delivery of the speed limit review. This includes the introduction of a default 30 km/h limit in urban areas, where lower speeds can make the greatest difference for pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users. In addition, new regulations will come into effect from 1 November to tackle the long-standing issue of multiple learner permit renewals and encourage progression through the driver licensing system.

The national safety camera strategy was published in April and it will assist An Garda Síochána to deploy more safety cameras across our road network. It provides a framework for wider deployment of cameras targeting speeding, red-light running and bus lane infringements, with scope to support enforcement of other offences in future. The camera enforcement oversight group, chaired by the CEO of the National Transport Authority, is responsible for delivering the strategy. The group continues to meet and will report to the road safety leadership group on its progress in due course. We are also investing in behaviour change. I directed the RSA to ring-fence €18 million this year for road safety awareness, education and campaigns aimed at all road users, including vulnerable road users.

I was pleased to bring the National Vehicle and Driver File, Road Traffic and Roads Bill 2026 before the Dail on 17 September and I look forward to engaging with Senators as it makes its way through the legislative process. The Bill is about making sure that the law supporting road safety, vehicle compliance, enforcement and public administration is modern, clear and fit for purpose. The policy rationale in terms of road safety is straightforward. Local authorities must be able to receive traffic collision data from An Garda Síochána or the Road Safety Authority for the purposes of identifying and addressing safety risks of public roads within their functional area. This will allow for the targeting of maintenance or construction of public roads, and the appropriate allocation of resources.

The Bill also allows a jury to consider the lesser charge of careless driving where a defendant is acquitted of dangerous driving. This arises from a recommendation in Mr. Justice Haughton’s report into the death of Shane O'Farrell. In addition, further legislation is being developed to advance graduated penalty points and camera enforcement of mobile phone and seatbelt offences.

The choice to engage in criminal behaviour, dangerous driving and excess speed on our roads leads inevitably to death, destruction and despair. The tragedy on the M9 brings home the stark reality of these behaviours and the unspeakable devastation it brings to innocent victims and to the families left behind. In August, I met with senior road safety leaders from the Road Safety Authority, An Garda Síochána and Transport Infrastructure Ireland as well as officials from my Department and the Department of justice to explore how we can improve safety on our motorways. The Government is committed to ensuring that our gardaí have the resources, equipment, training and legislation they need to effectively police this type of criminal behaviour.

It is abhorrent that anybody would engage in such reckless behaviour as driving the wrong way down a motorway for any reason. It is particularly concerning if young people are engaging in this behaviour to produce videos for social media. 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. In addition, the RSA has also published an information leaflet outlining emergency advice on what to do when encountering a vehicle travelling in the wrong direction. Transport Infrastructure Ireland is also examining a range of measures to mitigate the risk from such behaviour. This is a complex issue, which has many causes and will not be easily solved. It is important that we continue to work together and look at every practical measure available to make our motorways as safe as possible for all road users.

On 1 April, the Road Traffic (Control of Certain Vehicles) Regulations 2026, known as Grace's Law in memory of Grace Lynch, were signed into law. The regulations implement an explicit ban on scrambler use in any public place and strengthen existing provisions and powers of enforcement by An Garda Síochána. I signed further regulations on 21 July to double the charges applying to vehicles seized under section 41 of the Road Traffic Act 1994, as amended. These regulations came into operation on 14 August. There is ongoing engagement between An Garda Síochána and my Department in this area to ensure that we continue to deliver effective enforcement in relation to scramblers.

Additionally, the Government has introduced new regulations in relation to e-scooters. This reflects ongoing concerns around road safety and the recent significant rise in serious injuries, particularly among children. Regulations to make helmets and high-visibility clothing mandatory for e-scooter users came into effect on 4 September 2026 and fees for detention and storage of seized e-scooters will be doubled, which will take effect from 2 October. On 22 September, I signed new regulations to raise the age limit for e-scooter users from 16 to 18. This will also come into effect from 2 October 2026. These are necessary and proportionate road safety measures and they are designed to address the number of serious injuries and fatalities among young e-scooter users. Further measures will be introduced in the coming weeks, including increasing fixed charge notices to €100 for e-scooter offences and the introduction of a new fixed charge notice offence of €100 for not wearing a helmet or high visibility clothing.

Enforcement is a key aspect of ensuring greater safety on our roads. An Garda Síochána is responsible for enforcing road traffic legislation and continues to prioritise road safety. In addition, since May 2024, with powers and provisions introduced by the Road Traffic Act 2024, An Garda Síochána now conducts mandatory drug testing at the scene of serious collisions. Since November 2023, the Motor Insurers Bureau of Ireland has been providing insurance details to An Garda Síochána. Details for 3 million vehicles and 5 million drivers are provided daily to identify vehicles being driven without insurance.

My focus as Minister, the focus of my Department and the focus of all of the road safety stakeholders that we work with, is on the delivery of the phase 2 action plan. This plan was developed by experts, based on Irish experience while considering best practice in other countries, and our focus is on the delivery of these agreed actions. I look forward to hearing the contributions of Senators on this very important topic.

I welcome the girls from Christ King secondary school in Cork, who are here as guests of the Taoiseach. They are all very welcome and I hope they enjoy their day.

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House this afternoon. Road safety is a key priority for Fianna Fáil. Improving road safety requires the right legislation, effective policies, strong enforcement, close co-operation between agencies and authorities and greater public awareness of our shared responsibility as road users. Over a period of just over two decades there had been a significant drop in deaths on our roads from 472 road deaths in Ireland in 1997 to 137 in 2021. This remarkable transformation was achieved against the backdrop of significant increases in the number of vehicles on our roads. However, it is alarming to see a reversal in this trend in recent years.

We have witnessed a marked rise in road fatalities, which has been a serious source of concern to all of us. In south Tipperary, we have seen a number of tragedies on our roads. As late as Monday morning, we heard Michael English speaking about the death of his daughter, the late Bronagh English. Bronagh's mum is Danielle English and her grandfather is Dr. Donie Ormonde, a former Member of the Seanad. A number of their ideas were highlighted, including road markings and road signage that would create awareness, and that they hope will help to prevent the same thing from happening to others in future. Bronagh, who passed away just over a year ago, was a vibrant young lady. We send our sincere sympathies to her family and to her school associates in Rockwell College. We have had a number of young people die on our roads, including David Lahart and Sonny Tobin, just to name two. These deaths have had a great impact on these people's families and friends. They are left behind to deal with the horrific consequences. The loss of these young people is very raw and sore for these families.

Our approach is about saving lives and preventing serious injuries for all of those who use our roads. The starting point is recognising that road deaths or serious injuries should not be the price to be paid for mobility. The approach is multifaceted. It includes stronger laws, better data, smarter technology, tougher enforcement, safer speeds, safer road design and focused education.

We have the National Vehicle and Driver File, Road Traffic and Roads Bill 2026, which will allow local authorities to resume processing collision data, along with a number of other provisions to address road safety concerns. The next road traffic and roads Bill is under development. It will advance graduated speeding penalties and camera enforcement of mobile phone and seat belt offences. We are progressing the delivery of the speed limit review. We are also addressing repeated permit renewals. New regulations will come into effect this November to tackle the long-standing issue of multiple learner permit renewals and to encourage progression through the driver licensing system. We are increasing enforcement and using technology to deliver better road safety outcomes. The national safety strategy provides a framework for the wider deployment of cameras targeting speeding, red light running and bus lane infringements, with scope to support enforcement targeting other offences in future. We are making roads safer by design. This year, €14 million has been allocated under the low-cost safety improvement scheme for targeted engineering measures at identified risk locations. We are investing in behavioural change. The Road Safety Authority, RSA, has ring-fenced €18 million this year for road safety awareness and education campaigns aimed at all road users, including vulnerable road users.

Road safety is not simply a matter of transport policy. It is a matter of life and death, of families and of communities, and of the fundamental right of every person to travel safely on our roads. Recent fatal collisions have again brought home in the most devastating way the human cost of failures in road safety. Behind every statistic is a person, and behind every fatality are family members whose lives have been changed forever. Understandably, there is public anger and frustration when people see dangerous driving, speeding, uninsured or unlicensed drivers or other serious breaches of road traffic law. They question whether our enforcement system is keeping pace. As legislators, we have a responsibility to respond.

Improving road safety requires the right legislation, effective policies, strong enforcement, close co-operation between agencies and authorities and greater public awareness of our shared responsibility as road users. This is why I welcome the Government's National Vehicle and Driver File, Road Traffic and Roads Bill 2026. This is not simply an administrative or technical Bill. It is an important modernisation and road safety measure, designed to ensure that the laws governing vehicle and driver information, compliance and enforcement are modern, clear and fit for purpose.

We must also be prepared to ask difficult questions about enforcement. Do our gardaí have the information they need when they need it? Are the legal powers sufficiently clear? Are penalty and compliance systems actually delivering the deterrent we expect of them? The Government has already acknowledged that road safety requires legislation, effective enforcement and co-operation between the Departments of transport and justice, An Garda Síochána, the RSA and other agencies.

At the same time, greater access to information must come with proper safeguards. We must see dangerous drivers being detected. We must see effective enforcement of our traffic laws. We must have confidence that agencies of the State are able to share necessary information lawfully and efficiently to make our roads safer. Road safety legislation is only as effective as our ability to enforce it. As a Government Senator, therefore, I support this Bill and the wider Government programme of road safety reform, but I believe we must continue to challenge ourselves. Where there are gaps in enforcement, we must close them. Where legislation is unclear, we must strengthen it. Where information can save lives, we must use it responsibly. Where dangerous behaviour is putting lives at risk, we must act decisively.

As we are approaching winter, I urge pedestrians, joggers and cyclists to please think of the drivers and make sure to wear hi-vis jackets and slow down. We cannot see people in dark clothes. It is most important to reduce the number of accidents to be aware. We need to let that message go out that people need to wear the hi-vis vests so that we can see them. Go raibh míle maith agat.

The Minister of State is very welcome to the House to discuss this important issue. At Christmas 2007, my two oldest children were only nippers. They were five and six at the time. They were getting ready to go and spend time with their grandmother, Margaret Moran, in Nenagh in County Tipperary. She was very excited about the impending visit. She was a very fit and healthy 67-year-old lady. Margaret went to the local supermarket on the Main Street in Nenagh to pick out a Christmas tree. The young guy there told her not to worry and that he would drop it up to the house for her. She went ahead of him and was walking back home. Just opposite the creamery, she was struck by a car. She suffered a head injury and subsequently died in Cork University Hospital.

I saw Margaret in intensive care. She was kept ventilated until her daughters came back from Australia to see her for one last time. There was not a mark on her, except for one small little bruise on her forehead. The swelling of her brain, however, meant that she lost her life. I saw the devastation her death had on that family, which had echoes across the world, including in Australia, and to all of her siblings in Ireland and the UK. I also saw the impact it had on my boys and the questions that they asked me about what had happened.

That experience has happened to 846 families in the last five years. An average of 140 families go through this experience every year. From my work advocating for people with disabilities, I know that there are thousands of people who have acquired injuries through road traffic accidents. They have survived, but their lives have been changed forever. They have acquired brain injuries and an impaired ability to walk. I know of one vulnerable road user, a cyclist, who was working in one of the major law firms in Dublin. He was a very fit guy, using his Strava while he went in and out to work, competing against himself.

He was involved in a road traffic collision. He is now paralysed. His marriage has collapsed and he is now homeless.

Our perception of threat is something that is very important. We hear a lot about drone sightings, which remind me a little of the moving statues of the late 1980s, but that is for another day's debate. There is kind of a mass hysteria about all of these vague threats, but the most dangerous thing a person does every day in the 21st century environment we are in is get behind the wheel of a car, get onto a motorcycle as I do or, in particular, get onto a bicycle. People need to think.

The statistics are interesting in relation to the fatalities here. The majority of them are men. Of those, the vast majority are under the age of 26. There has been a development in recent years with an increase in fatality rates among older drivers. That is something we need to address and think about. However, when I got my first car in 1987, it was a 15-year-old Renault 12. It was a 1.3 litre petrol engine. If I tried to get it up to 50 mph, I would hear every bit of it rattle. My youngest fella, who has just passed his driving test, now sits into a 2.2 litre turbo diesel vehicle. Speed is an issue. It is one of the dominant factors in road fatalities, injuries and collisions. The vehicles we have available to us now, such as electric vehicles, scooters and e-bikes, can achieve high speeds quickly.

I remember how invulnerable I felt in my Renault 12 at the age of 20, until I lost control of it. I was teaching in Lucan and I used to drive from Finglas every day through the Strawberry Beds. One morning, I encountered black ice and completely lost control of the vehicle. It was not until that happened that I realised that I was vulnerable.

Most of the victims of road traffic collisions and people who cause them are young men under the age of 26. The frontal lobe does not develop fully until you are about 25 or 26. In fact, in the United States in some areas of medicine such as paediatrics, particularly in psychiatry and areas like that, men are considered children until they are 25. We have to find a way of targeting those young guys. There are two ways to do that. We have them as a captive audience, literally and metaphorically, in schools. I know as a former primary school teacher that teachers in schools all around the country could tell you who is likely to be involved in a road traffic accident. We can educate them there.

As a motorcyclist, I have noticed lately that I am constantly being overtaken. I have a 400 cc Yamaha motorcycle and I am constantly being overtaken by people on e-bikes and e-scooters. Very often, they do not have any protective equipment. I have also noticed increasingly that cyclists, young cyclists in particular, indicate by putting out an arm and then manoeuvre. They do not look behind them. I always try to get eye contact with the driver when manoeuvring. They call it the look back or lifesaver when on a motorcycle. There is a requirement for education. Where could we do that? Most likely in school.

In relation to that young cohort, I hear advertisements on the radio, such as RTÉ, talking about road safety and encountering unexpected hazards. The target audience does not listen to the radio. They do not listen to talk radio or watch the news. They are online. The people who are expert in targeting our young people with TikTok should be harnessed. Google, TikTok and Meta, the companies that are resident here, should pro bono give back to society and devise a way of reaching this vulnerable cohort of people.

Due to our son's disability, we do not fly on holidays. For the last 25 years, I have been driving to the Continent every year. I have driven all over Europe over the last 25 years. When you leave this jurisdiction, one of the first things you notice is the visibility of roads policing and enforcement in other jurisdictions. That has an impact on driver behaviour. I rarely see An Garda Síochána on the roads here. That is not a criticism of An Garda Síochána, but it is a matter of resourcing. I know that the Minister of State will be lobbying his colleagues in Cabinet for that investment.

We have personal experience of the tragedy involved in all of this, but I have seen the Minister of State intervene personally, as recently as over the summer when we had the wrong-way driving down the motorway, and take on a leadership role. The definition of leadership is to serve others. I commend him and thank him for that. I do not want to use the pun, but it is clear to me that at least somebody is not asleep at the wheel, whether it is the RSA or other authorities. I commend the Minister of State in his work and wish him well. I hope that he goes a good way towards achieving the target of reducing road fatalities by 50% in the next number of years.

I thank the Minister of State for being here and for his work to date on road safety. It is such an important topic and is something that we have worked together on at different stages, including in my role on the Oireachtas Jooint Committee on Transport and in his ministerial brief. In recent years, we have seen new challenges that have threatened road safety, including pedestrian safety and cyclist safety. That comes in the form of scramblers and e-scooters, which have proliferated through towns, villages, cities and neighbourhoods and terrorised vulnerable road users across the country in an unprecedented way. We have also seen the rise of wrong-way driving and intentional vigilantism on motorways, which is breeding huge fear and anxiety in night-time drivers on motorways. It has caused insufferable tragedies to families across the country. It is something that is not just an Irish problem. As with most problems we discuss in this House, there is a broader context across the Continent and the globe.

In our work in the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport, we have tried to be constructive and proactive in addressing the different challenges that I have just outlined. We have done it in a consultative way as much as possible, led by the Chair, Deputy Michael Murphy. We engaged with the Irish Motorcycle Association in one meeting to talk about the safety from its point of view. We have engaged with the Irish Road Haulage Association to discuss its vulnerabilities, challenges and blind spots as large road users. We also engaged with PARC, the victim group, and the Irish Road Victims Association, IRVA, to hear first-hand the unimaginable impact that a fatality has on a loved one, family member or friend, and the life-altering injuries that are associated with road traffic accidents. We also engaged with cyclists. We recently engaged with Transport Infrastructure Ireland, the Road Safety Authority and An Garda Síochána just this morning as part of a comprehensive review of road safety. I know that the Minister of State is well aware of many of the matters that have been outlined at the committee, but this is a good opportunity for a broader discussion across this Chamber because we all have experience that we can offer.

I note the unprecedented levels of public transport, which can help move people to a safer mode of transport. I would welcome a continuation of investment into public transport routes across the country. Local Link in my home county of Mayo is a great example of that. We have additional proposals that we would like to see realised. We are speaking about road safety, and while I am conscious that discussions around Local Link may be a degree removed, they are inextricably linked, as we can take people out of vulnerable situations and connect them with safe and accessible public transport.

There are a whole range of interventions that can be made. I will use a local example. The fixed speed cameras have created a marked improvement in terms of accidents and fatalities on certain black spots on junctions in County Mayo along the N5 and N17.

They were notorious areas of difficulty and blackspots and have benefited from a fixed speed zone. There have been teething challenges in other parts of the country. The intention, merit and spirit of what is being done is to try to improve road safety, not penalise motorists needlessly. It is important that we do not cynically target motorists in areas where they are easily caught, but instead challenge road safety head on and have that and nothing else as the priority.

We also need to consider our built environment. I ask for and encourage as much investment as possible in low-cost safety measures to make sure that our towns, villages and neighbourhoods are safe places where pedestrians and cyclists feel safe, are protected by strong and proper kerbing and routes and do not feel vulnerable in the built environment. I welcome the reduction in speed limits in certain neighbourhoods and the autonomy given to local authorities in that space.

As a former member of Mayo County Council, I will voice my frustration at times in trying to respond to reports of dangerous areas through applications for low-cost safety measures. There needs to be a more responsive funding scheme. Where there is an incident or tragedy, there is a wait of 12 months before applying for low-cost safety measures and there may be a wait for a number of months to be funded. It may take another number of months for the work to go to tender and more time for the contractor to complete the works. This is something that is difficult for anyone in the community to take if there has been a serious incident or challenge where it has been recognised that improvements need to be made.

I would welcome a more swift and agile response on decisions and a rolling fund for low-cost safety measures such as pedestrian crossings and ramps in neighbourhoods. To be honest, those competencies should be devolved to local authorities rather than applications having to be submitted to the Department. The Department has much bigger projects to deal with. There is a need for overall education and awareness, which need to be constantly reaffirmed. I recently met the Road Safety Authority, RSA, and I am encouraged by its leadership team. The people I met are very passionate about road safety. It is important that we all acknowledge its role in awareness and education, in particular. That is not something that can be done once and a box ticked. There needs to be constant engagement. The roadshows it holds regionally are incredible in terms of their impact on young people, in particular, who are starting out in the world and who have a higher statistical likelihood of a fatality than other road users.

I commend the RSA on its work. It has faced challenges in the past, but I hope we are moving in the right direction in terms of the awareness piece. There are unprecedented challenges. The opportunity to discuss this issue today is a very welcome one because a silver bullet will not fix this. We require an all-of-society and all-of-government approach to make sure that we protect road users, pedestrians and cyclists across the board and make it a safer environment for all users.

I welcome the Minister of State. As a member of the Joint Committee on Transport, I am delighted to have this debate. As my colleague across the floor said, we have had months of engagement. What I took out of a lot of that was that this does not fall under the remit of one Department or organisation. Road safety is everything. It includes the RSA, TII, An Garda Síochána, the Department of Transport and the Minister of State's Department. Everybody needs to work together. I have to include local councils, which have a part to play when it comes to road safety.

My biggest message today would be that if we want to tackle road safety, we have to start by tackling the roads. I understand 85% of accidents and road fatalities happen on rural and local roads. We have a serious issue with our roads and I do not mean national roads and motorways. Between the N69 and the road through Adare, every single year something is going on at the exact same time, which means there are roadworks on both roads leaving Limerick towards Kerry. Local roads are not getting the attention they need. There are roads in County Limerick which have not been resurfaced in the past 30 years. I requested the resurfacing of roads and was told that they are in the 2026 or 2027 plan. Potholes are being refilled, but when the harsh weather comes in they reopen. Outside of the damage potholes do to cars, people swerve to avoid them. They are on dark, small country roads. People who swerve around a pothole near a bend could meet someone coming around the bend towards them. There is big machinery on the roads.

Another issue on rural roads is hedge cutting. It needs to be more regular. The hedge cutting that is done at the moment is done to suit the height of a car. Buses, tractors and trucks have to go over white lines because they fear damaging their mirrors. The cost of a mirror for a truck, tractor or bus is a hell of a lot more than for a car. They are looking after their vehicles and have to go over the white line, which is another safety issue.

We cannot mitigate every single thing that could happen on a road, especially if somebody is going out to deliberately cause dangerous situations, as has happened on motorways. No matter how many messages we put out or alerts in cars or on phones, if people are going out to deliberately cause harm they will not change unless we get to them in school and educate them. We all know that early intervention in all walks of life is best, whether that is road safety, health or justice. Early intervention is key and that is what we need to do.

I am delighted that there are fixed penalty notices for e-scooters, but without Garda enforcement this will continue to be a problem. We do not have enough gardaí. I know the Minister of State is trying his best to get them, but we need to speak to gardaí who are retiring and leaving and find out why. I met a garda in County Limerick a couple of weeks ago who said he is eligible to retire at Christmas and by God he is going. He said he could not stay in the organisation any longer. He did not go into detail as to why, but he was quite disgruntled. We have a serious morale issue. If we could fix that, we could get more gardaí on the books and have more of a supply to go onto our roads.

I drive plenty, mainly around Limerick and up and down to Clare and Tipperary. I have not seen a Garda checkpoint since Covid. That was the last time I was stopped by the Garda, and I am on national and rural roads. I know we do not have enough gardaí to put on to rural roads - there are thousands of roads to man. On our main roads when it comes to bank holidays we hear on the radio that there will be a massive campaign and gardaí will catch people and be out in force, but I have not been stopped over the past four or five years. The last time I was stopped by gardaí was when there were checks during Covid, and that was to ask me where I was going. It was not to take a breathalyser test or check anything with the car.

The NCT is a bugbear of mine. I completely agree with an NCT. My NCT was out this week and when I went to book a test a couple of weeks ago, the closest date I could get was the first week of December in Limerick. It is not an issue that the test is so far away, but when I get a test in December it will be backdated, meaning I will lose a couple of months. My car will have been deemed roadworthy for the past three months, but I will still have to come back in nine months' time and pay again.

It is a little bit of a money thing when it comes to the NCT. It should not be able to say that a car has been roadworthy for the past three or six months when it does not know whether that was the case. Also, a person should not have to lose three months on the other end and have to go back to pay it again as a result of that.

I heard mention of high-visibility jackets across the floor. I definitely agree with them. Often, I drive on country and rural roads. Some people wear all black clothing. Even during the day, if the sun is at a certain height, it is nearly impossible to see such people. There is a need for education in this regard.

There is also the issue of e-scooters and cycling. I do not see this too often in Limerick because I am based in County Limerick rather than Limerick city. However, in Dublin, I see this issue. I am not afraid of the cars, trucks or buses in Dublin. Rather, I am afraid of crossing the road when there is a cyclist coming because they do not stop at the traffic lights.

Everyone has a part to pay, as I said earlier. We have the RSA and other organisations, but every road user has a part to play. Everyone must obey the rules of the road as they pertain to them and respect everybody else on the road. Everyone should walk a day in everyone else’s shoes. I noticed this when my daughter started driving. When my children were pedestrians, they kept their heads down and were looking at their phones when walking across roads. To them, as they were at a pedestrian crossing, they had the right of way. They did not check to see whether a car was coming because it was a pedestrian crossing and they had the right of way. By God, since getting into their cars and realising how hard it is to see every single thing around them when they are driving and how much there is to concentrate on, they do not do that any more. Now, when they are walking or see someone coming out onto the road, they hope those individuals look up. There is a need for education across the board for every road user, whether they are walking, cycling or driving. There is a lot to be done in this regard.

I would like to see more investment and funding for councils to look after rural roads in order to stop the high incidence rate of accidents. These accidents may not all be fatal. We see the statistics on fatal accidents but there are also accidents that leave people with acquired brain injuries. I have met a lot of residents and people near me who have had accidents and are left with life-debilitating conditions. Those people have a whole life to live in which they must try to access services, which are quite difficult to access. Their entire families, who have to look after them, are put under stress and strain. We need to be looking at everything in the round.

Glaoim ar an Seanadóir Noonan. Tá sé chun a chuid ama a roinnt leis an Seanadóir Cosgrove. Tá an t-am roinnte i mbabhta amháin de thrí nóiméad agus babhta eile de chúig nóiméad. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit, an Teachta Canney. I wish to raise a couple of points with the Minister of State. The points about vulnerable users have been made well. I will be cycling out to Harold’s Cross after this engagement. I agree with the points made about cycling in Dublin. I find it quite scary, and that is partially down to cyclists. It is something for which we all have a collective responsibility. I will speak to that point about vulnerable road users, pedestrians and cyclists. Fatalities around these cohorts have increased significantly. It is a real challenge. These incidents are happening in smaller towns, as well as here in Dublin. They are happening all too frequently.

The advertisement on the television is lovely and catchy with the “30 Town” slogan. It is a lovely advertisement, but the reality for those of us cycling in our urban areas is that the 30km/h limit is not being adhered to in any way, shape or form. I see no adherence to it in Dublin or Kilkenny. It is critically important that there is enforcement on the 30km/h default speed limit, which is something I have asked of the Minister of State before. We also need that speed limit extended in our urban centres because, currently, there are different interpretations as to where the 30km/h speed limit should start. Local authorities need to be mandated to ensure that the default speed limit of 30km/h is enforced. That is hugely important and could make a significant difference for vulnerable road users. A speed of 30km/h feels very different to 40km/h for cyclists, walkers, pedestrians and people with mobility issues or a disability. Those speed limit reforms are critically important. I support the Love 30 campaign led by the Irish Cycling Campaign.

There is also the issue of safety for motorcyclists on our roads, particularly rural roads where resurfacing material is not of the quality it might have been in the past as a result of the constraints on local authority budgets. There is a lot of surface material on our roads now, such as gravel. Farm machinery coming out of yards and fields leaves debris on our roads and causes a significant challenge to motorcyclists as well. I ask the Minister of State to look at those two issues. The red light camera enforcement pilot and speed limit reform are critical issues for me.

Tá fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I too am a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport. As my two colleagues outlined, we have had many meetings in this regard. I counted 11 such meetings. A huge emphasis has been placed on this. To be honest, the Minister of State has appeared before the committee a good few times more than most, and we are all grateful for that. The committee has heard from union and road haulage representatives, rehabilitation and victim advocacy groups and PARC. The list goes on. These meetings encompassed vulnerable road users, cyclists and those who suffer an acquired brain injury. While there were improvements in road safety in the past few decades, it is disappointing that the situation is not getting any better.

I will focus on the statistics around young men. I raised this issue at the last committee meeting. Nine out of ten deaths involving speeding were male, as were nine out of ten deaths where no seatbelts were worn. A total of 87% detected under the influence were men and 74% of those detected speeding were also men. A total of 75% of those caught using a mobile phone were male. It is not about being anti-man by any stretch of the imagination but we must ask whether we are meeting young male drivers where their needs are. Are we meeting them in the communities? I spoke to witnesses from the RSA last week about the delivery of training programmes and whether we are meeting these cohorts of men in the areas we need to be. It is all very well having programmes for transition year, but a lot of people do not do transition year. A lot of people leave school before that or skip that year. Should we be looking more at youth centres, youth groups, community training centres and Youthreach? Should we focus our attention on these areas in order to target and education young men and look at where they are at in their own lives? It is not about pointing the finger but, rather, looking at where they are in their lives. Risk-taking behaviour, such as the driving up and down motorways we seen, is horrific for everyone involved, both for the families of the victims and the families of the young people involved. Support needs to be put in place in this regard. We must look at the young people involved in accidents of this nature. Were there early intervention programmes in the house? Had they been involved in juvenile liaison programmes? Did they get the supports they needed as children and young people?

The Garda deputy commissioner was before the transport committee this morning on the issue of roads policing. I asked whether there were enough police driving instructors within the force and if they were going to go to Templemore. I received information that three instructors were trained but subsequently told that there were no vacancies in Templemore. We know that there are not enough Garda police units. We hear how An Garda Síochána wants the roads policing units to operate to their full capacity. However, we have three individuals who are trained and find themselves stuck. They want to go down to Templemore as instructors. That is a question that has to be asked. I asked the witnesses from An Garda Síochána to come back to me in that regard.

I asked the Minister of State a number of months ago whether there should be a commissioner for road safety. He expressed confidence in the RSA, and it is good to see that he is still as confident because I know he has put a lot of work into this.

There are small things like that around vulnerable road users. It is great to hear Senator Noonan talk about cycling in Dublin. As a member of the Sligo Cycling Campaign, I agree that 30 km/h zones should be mandated in our urban, built-up zones because then people would be free. It would help disabled people, cyclists and pedestrians alike. I still argue - I should be the Minister of State’s agent for the western rail corridor – that the ultimate way to address road safety is to take more people off the road, particularly trucks, freight and passengers. There is an early morning commuter train that we are pushing hard to get. Hopefully, the Minister of State can have some influence on this. It is from Longford to Sligo in the morning. It would take so much traffic off the road in the morning, including those attending Atlantic Technological University, ATU.

The earliest train that arrives in Sligo is at 10.15 a.m. and it is a university town. We have a hospital and we have civil servants. It is a big and growing regional centre. The Minister of State knows this himself from being a west of Ireland man. There is a reduction in freight licensing, and in the context of an expansion of rail freight services and the western rail corridor, will the Minister of State please talk some sense into his three coalition colleagues about the greenway in Sligo, if he has any sway there at all? I live just beside Sligo Port in Sligo Bay. I see that timber that has been harvested from all around the area is being brought by truck to Sligo Bay. The western rail corridor could easily connect that up, and it could go the whole way down to Foynes, so that we would have a full system where a lot of freight and trucks would be taken off the roads, particularly on our regional roads where we do not have the infrastructure.

We are also looking at offshore wind and developing that. Rail will play a really important role in that. I know we are talking about road safety but the better the availability of public transport, the more people who will come off the road, such as vulnerable road users. Local Link is another aspect and they are all connected. Since I was elected as a Senator, a number of people who live in rural areas of Sligo and Leitrim have come to me about having extra Local Link services. A lot of older and disabled people use Local Link and they are taking them off the road as well.

I thank the Senator and I apologise to her for being a little bit more strict on the time. Members will be aware we ran about 15 minutes over on the Order of Business so we will now ask Senator Flynn to speak for eight minutes. Before I do, can I get an agreement that the remaining speakers will have two minutes each because I need to bring the Minister of State back in?

I may not need the full time. I will take five minutes.

If Senator Flynn is happy with that, we will give three minutes to Senators Byrne, Costello and Scahill.

Never say I have never done anything for the Opposition. I will start with the truth. A total of 185 people died on Irish roads in 2025 and 141 lost their lives in the first nine months of this year. Behind those numbers are devastated families and, often, shattered communities. We saw the devastation clearly when five young men died on the M9 in August. A family in the other car was badly hurt, including a seven-year-old boy. This was a terrible tragedy. Nothing we say today can change or take away the grief from those families. We all understand why people are angry and upset. When young people die on our roads, we should all feel that pain. We should ask hard questions about why it happened. We need proper enforcement, better infrastructure and a real end to dangerous driving.

Every day, we see where call-outs and TikTok videos have cost so many lives in this country and beyond for years. We see dares and it was also part of Coco's Law. We have seen young people being bullied online. It is unfortunate when five young men lost their lives here in August. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil used it as an opportunity to kick five dead bodies and not to think about the families, the mothers, the fathers, the sisters or the brothers behind those five young men. In October 2000, I was in a severely bad car crash. I broke my two legs, my two arms, my two feet and suffered some other injuries as well. I have had numerous operations. I, for one, know exactly how long is the road to recovery. In some cases, that road is a never-ending road. Next Wednesday, I will be back in Cappagh Hospital for a small procedure on my arm and here I am standing up here, 27 years later, and I am still impacted. A drunk driver crashed into the back of me. Little or nothing has changed on Irish roads in the past 27 years.

When we talk about young people on our roads, we need to turn to our legislators and our politicians too when they are travelling at over 160 km per hour on the M8. That was not a mistake; that was purposefully done. Every single politician in here did not have to feel the pain of that. They did not get racist, horrible, hateful comments. It was not put onto all politicians. Although he has not been charged yet, we then saw a politician who was two times over the limit for drink-driving. That was a choice. We had five young men killed on our roads and I will end this speech by saying Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil used it to kick them. They used it to kick dead bodies. We need better legislation. We need our high-vis jackets. I live in rural Ireland and in the summer and the winter, my children walk in their high-vis jackets. I will now take a seat and I say to the Minister of State that to stop young people dying on our roads, we need enforcement, better policing and to support our gardaí to be able to deal with that.

A TD said to me last week in the private session of the Traveller committee that the Traveller community glorified it and glorified them as heroes. That is a lie. Nobody within my community or my family members glorified what happened on the M9. Every single day, members of the Traveller community pray for the people who were hurt. Bring in better legislation. Hold TikTok and the social media companies to account. We had them in front of the committee last week and, by God, they never answered one question. There is no accountability.

As a member of Fianna Fáil, I dispute that we used the tragedy to kick dead bodies. I actually take offence to that. I take huge offence to that. Anyone who watched-----

Have I discriminated against two-----

I did not cut over Senator Flynn when she was speaking.

I took really big offence when one of the Fianna Fáil TDs, who is the chair of the youth committee, called young people thugs. Shame on Fianna Fáil. Shame on Senator Costello's party.

I do not accept that.

Well, I have said it and I am not taking it back. Shame on Senator Costello's party.

Senator Flynn can talk to me outside but she should not shout across the Chamber at me. Anybody who watched TV3 last night will have been deeply concerned by what they saw. It is frightening to see lives lost because of reckless behaviour on our roads. Every time we use our roads, whether as motorists, cyclists, pedestrians or passengers, we are vulnerable. A moment of recklessness, distraction or impairment can have devastating and irreversible consequences. Today, I could not stand here without talking about nitrous oxide consumption while driving. It requires far greater attention than it is getting.

I have been raising concerns about this issue for some time because I have seen the evidence of nitrous oxide use across my own community. I have received repeated reports of people consuming it in cars. I have personally seen people driving with a balloon in their mouth, consuming nitrous oxide and sharing road space with innocent people going about their day, and it is only luck preventing a catastrophe. We need to understand just how dangerous it is. When nitrous oxide is inhaled, the effects can be almost immediate. A person can experience a brief but intense feeling of euphoria, or a high, but they can also experience dizziness, disorientation, impaired co-ordination and reduced awareness of what is happening around them. Imagine experiencing those effects when you are behind the wheel of a car. A driver needs to be alert to react instantly to a pedestrian stepping onto the road, a cyclist changing position, a car braking in front of them or any unexpected hazard.

There is simply no place for deliberately impairing yourself while in control of a vehicle. Recently, I spent one hour driving around Tallaght with my good friend, local volunteer and former Tallaght Person of the Year, Nico Crowley. In that single hour, we collected 198 discarded nitrous oxide canisters. Some were found alongside roadsides, including close to the M50 slip road. Where they were located, combined with what I have witnessed and the reports I continue to receive, raises very serious questions about nitrous oxide use while driving.

I will make another point really clearly. There can be a temptation to dismiss this as something confined to just young people. That is not what I am hearing and seeing. I am receiving reports of adults consuming nitrous oxide in parked cars and parking bays. I am hearing reports of people dressed for work, people sitting in expensive cars and people in branded work vans consuming it. This is not about demonising any particular age group. It is about recognising a dangerous behaviour for what it is - a serious road safety risk. That is why I am calling for nitrous oxide to be specifically addressed within the prohibited substances framework under our road traffic legislation.

Our laws must keep pace with changes in behaviour and emerging threats on our roads. If people are consuming a substance that causes disorientation, dizziness and impaired co-ordination and then getting behind the wheel, enforcement authorities need an effective legal framework to respond.

I will continue to highlight the dangers of nitrous oxide consumption while driving and I ask the relevant authorities and the Minister of State to examine urgently what further legislative and enforcement measures are needed. It is simple. If people are driving, they must be fully in control. Consuming nitrous oxide behind the wheel puts drivers, their passengers and every other person on the road at risk. It is an emerging road safety issue and it is a serious one.

As we are caught for time, we will adhere strictly to two minutes. There are four remaining speakers, starting with Senator Cathal Byrne.

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber. I will raise three issues. First, at a local level in my home county of Wexford, there are three dangerous crossroads. Unfortunately, over the years, they have been the locations of many fatalities and serious crashes causing devastating, long-lasting harm to people. They are at Kyle Cross on the N11 outside Oilgate, Larkin's Cross on the N25, which is the road that runs from New Ross to Wexford town, and Clohamon Cross on the N80, which runs from Bunclody to Enniscorthy. The Minister of State will be aware that I have previously highlighted these areas. Studies of and public consultations about them are under way at the moment, but I ask that the funding that comes out of those reviews be provided swiftly.

Second, I will speak for a moment about the urgent need for the Oilgate to Rosslare motorway to be progressed. The latest statistics show that seven in ten road traffic collisions occur on rural roads, and extending that motorway - it is expected a planning application will be lodged next year - would be a mechanism to reduce fatalities in Wexford.

Finally, I will raise the issue of individuals who are driving on our roads after being disqualified. At the moment, section 38 of the Road Traffic Act provides they will be subject to a maximum of six months' imprisonment or a fine of €5,000. That needs to be reviewed and strengthened. Individuals who are driving while disqualified should be subjected to far greater penalties.

I welcome this debate and that it is varied, that everyone is not sticking to the same issues of enforcement and drugs testing, although they are important. However, there is also the issue I will focus on, which is the condition of our roads. In Cavan and Monaghan, there are roads that used to be cart track and which have just had a layer of tar put over them. There is no real strength in the roads for the traffic that is on them. There are roads which the new Local Link buses are too big for. The buses, lorries and trucks are halfway over the white line when travelling on them. That is causing a lot of concern among people, as are hedges growing out over roads. That is also a safety concern. It pushes trucks out. If a person breaks a mirror on a truck, it could cost €3,000.

I was at a meeting on Monday with councillors in the Carrickmacross municipal district who are looking for more roads funding because they can only do 2% of the roads. We are expected to travel on roads that are essentially defective and there is not enough money to resurface and put in place good road structures. That is a major problem, because in July the councillors from Cavan County Council were also looking for more roads funding and they feel their words are falling on deaf ears. Does the RSA communicate much with the councils? Is the Minister of State asking councils whether they are getting enough money to make and keep the roads safe? A lot of the time, there are road safety issues. The low-cost safety schemes - we used to get three in our area - have been reduced to one, and that is also a problem, with dangerous junctions like the ones Senator Cathal Byrne spoke about.

I welcome the Minister of State for this debate on an important topic. I will follow on from what Senator O'Reilly raised. We are able to get money for big schemes, but sometimes the ones that will have a bigger impact and a wider geographical spread are the ones that suffer. As I have raised before, we have spent in excess of €50 million on the safe routes to school scheme, but 50% of the schools that originally applied to that scheme still have to get the work done. Yet, schools are on busy main roads and, predominantly, there are no speed reduction measures outside them.

I noticed recently Kingsland National School had a safety improvement work scheme introduced, which will give periodic speed limit reductions at various times of the day. However, what we need outside schools are speed bumps. They are not cost-intensive measures. The safe routes to school scheme is all the bells and whistles. The speed bumps will have the impact, especially when there is no enforcement outside schools. If people hit a speed bump once, they will not do so a second or third time. They would have a lasting impact on the safety of the children going to a lot of these schools.

I recognise Councillors Ruth Conboy and Valerie Duffy who have done surveys in the schools in Roscommon and listened to parents about the needs they identify. Rather than just getting names from parents and asking who wants to see changes, they are listening and looking for the issues parents identify outside schools.

It would be remiss of me not to mention the tragic incident that happened in Kiltybo between Ballyhaunis and Ballinlough earlier in September, where Eoin Doyle lost his life at a level crossing going home from football training with his father one evening. That is not directly the Minister of State's area, but we need to reduce the reliance on road users having to judge whether a train is coming at these junctions. We need to accelerate the installation of detection and early warning systems.

I must also mention the N60 safety scheme, which the CEO and director of services of Roscommon County Council have committed to. It needs to go into the road safety strategy, so I ask the Minister of State to have a word with the relevant Minister.

I thank colleagues and the Acting Chair for facilitating me. I welcome the Minister of State to the House. He always speaks common sense, is most approachable and has a policy of getting things done, which is refreshing. As someone who does not drive, I can never work out why people who do are not more safety conscious. Driving is a privilege. It is not available to everyone and motorists need to bear that in mind because, in a split second, they might not be able to drive for the rest of their lives if they are not more careful.

There needs to be more synergy between TII and the councils, certainly regarding national secondary routes. A number of national secondary routes in Clare have had issues. What was done with the speed limits in Darragh was welcome.

I will briefly raise the issue of the car rental fleet. There is a European directive, and people renting cars have a responsibility for safety as well. However, there is a proposal, and a letter was sent in the dying days of the previous Government committing Ireland to the corporate green directive that is being brought before the Commission at the moment. That also includes rental fleets. As the Minister of State is aware, electric rental cars will not work in rural Ireland. We do not have the infrastructure. Even Dublin Airport does not have the infrastructure. I want Ireland to withdraw the commitment to participate in that because it does not make sense and it will essentially close down the car rental businesses at airports overnight. I come from County Clare and Shannon Airport is in my constituency, so I know the importance of car rental, particularly for areas that are not necessarily directly on the tourism wavelength and other areas where people need a car to commute.

The Minister of State might tell us where we are with withdrawing that letter.

I will start at the end and work my way back. The issue Senator Conway raised is being discussed in the EU. Nothing has been signed. It is within my remit at the moment in the EU Presidency. It is one of the files that is being discussed and no conclusion has been reached on it yet. Negotiations are going on, I hear what the Senator is saying, and I thank him for that.

I will go back to a few things that were said by different Senators. I compliment them. I know they are completely committed to saving lives. In Europe in 2025, we lost nearly 20,000 people to road fatalities. That is a pandemic in any person's language. That is what we are facing. We are, as a nation within the European Union, doing okay, but we are not doing okay because people are dying. That is the bottom line. On the issue of substances, if Senator Costello sends me something on that, I will bring it up with my officials. I think it was well put forward by the Senator and we need to look at it to see what we can do with it.

Education and what is happening with young people came up. The Road Safety Authority is responsible for the roll-out of a national post primary schools offering which is training teachers to become professional learning people who can teach road safety within the schools. This year, we intend to have that programme delivered to all 730 post-primary schools. It is vital we get it out there.

Someone mentioned that 80% of our road network is local roads. It is 94% of the length and it is used by 55% of our traffic. We have reduced the speed limit from 80 km/h to 60 km/h on these roads. These are the roads that need attention to their junctions and whatever else. The low-cost access schemes exist and I encourage all the local authorities to put them together. They will have more access to data from once the National Vehicle and Driver File, Road Traffic and Roads Bill goes through. At the moment, it is daft that the local authorities are not allowed to access the information that the RSA or the Garda have about collisions. That will help them and it will become more workable for the local authorities. They do not have to look for stuff because it is there for them and they can take it out, as it were.

I commend the local authorities on all the works they have done on low-cost accident schemes over the years. They have done a lot but there is much more to do and they need more assistance.

Senator Clonan spoke about education and it was well put.

I would love to see another couple of thousand gardaí on the roads every day. The reality is that we are building capacity to turn out 1,000 new gardaí every year. That is where it is coming to by the end of this year. For me, while we are waiting for that, and that is not something you can magic up overnight, we need to be smart and to use the technologies we have. These intermittent speed cameras, the fixed-point cameras, the technologies that the Garda has and the legislation I am bringing forward will help the force to work more efficiently. Even with the speed vans, at the moment, the inspector of the speed van has to appear in court if somebody challenges the speed fixed notice they have got. When this legislation passes, it will mean that a certification will do in court. That person can be out on the road doing his or her job, which is monitoring speeds. That is a practical move

We have made it mandatory for people on e-scooters to have helmets and high-visibility vests. They have to be 18 years of age. That just happened in the past couple of weeks.

Regarding the early train from Longford to Sligo, the Senator can contact me directly and we will raise that.

Senator Costello mentioned nitrous oxide. Senator Byrne mentioned a number of roads. That is on the roads programme through the local authority. I think they are all someplace. They are on the agenda. If they come in through the roads request, which should be going in at this stage, we will see what is being delivered on the other side of it.

The issue of drivers who are disqualified is something that we are looking at. The other thing is graduated penalties. If people are 5 km/h over the speed limit or 50 km/h over it, there should be two different types of penalty for that. I am bringing in legislation for that. It is hoped we will have it in before the end of the year.

Gardaí engaging in pursuit during their duty need protection. We are bringing forward legislation and I have met the Garda and the Department of justice. We know what they want. We are talking to the Attorney General to bring forward draft legislation either through regulation or through legislation to help them. Aggravated endangerment is another request they have, that there would be legislation where, when gardaí are put in that position, they get that protection. I know from my meeting with the Garda and the Department of justice that there are more gardaí being trained as instructors in pursuit training and that they would be available from 1 January to start the pursuit training with gardaí in Templemore. That is important. Gardaí are using drones at the moment. They have been very successful in using drones in the pursuit of scramblers. More technologies will help.

I have a written speech here, but I am just answering what Senators asked. We have more schools to come out on the safe routes to school programme. Work is being done and things are happening, but maybe we could be doing more things more efficiently and deliver more for the money we are spending on it. I will be looking at that. We are reviewing that at the moment. We will have some more schools that will be added to the list to get done too.

Reflecting on what everybody said here, I am pleased that Senators all recognise the fact that this is not the RSA, which is being reformed. I meet the RSA regularly because I want to make sure it is doing what it is supposed to do. It has a plan to do things better. It is bringing in ambassadors. For sporting organisations in this country, it would be a simple thing and would cost nothing, where they have 20 or 30 players, whether footballers, hurlers, soccer players or whatever, who come to training and are under age, for those organisations to ensure it is said to those players before they finish training to make sure they put on their seat belts, put their phones away and drive safely on the way home. I learned this from the construction industry. Health and safety was not an agenda item, but every site meeting we had when we brought in the new rules meant we had to talk about safety, what happened on the site and whether there was an accident. That creates an agenda. We need to do that. It costs nothing. It is an attitude change. I am very strong on this, and very little is needed in terms of money. It is just to get people to say that this is their agenda for tomorrow night. They are going to talk about ten things, even at a community council meeting, and the last thing on the agenda is safety on the road. That is the type of thing we need to do to change attitudes. It would bring it into the home and into the school.

I am delighted to have met some children, fifth class students, who got road safety training on bicycles. When I asked them what they learned, the first thing they told me was that they learned how to stop the bike, which is the most important thing. It is easy to pedal the bike, but how do you stop it? That is the first thing they told me. We have a very good basis. We are all working together. Every one of us has personal responsibility. Senator Flynn alluded to everybody having a personal responsibility. We have the Road Safety Authority, TII, the NTA, and public transport, which I think is a key enabler to reduce the number of people on the roads.

I agree that we need to increase our rail freight. At the moment, 1% of freight goes by rail. We are investing in rail, so we need to make sure we see the dividend, which is fewer trucks on the road and more freight going by rail. Now that we have a connection into Foynes Port, that will help. All of them feed into road safety.

I thank Senators for their co-operation among themselves in divvying up the time. If they have a particular issue, please contact us. I do not have all the answers so I rely on everybody to give their piece and their advice.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit. Sula gcríochnaíonn muid, cuirim fáilte roimh ár gcuairteoirí. I welcome the guests of Deputy Michael Collins, Chris O’Donovan and Aisling Butler. I hope they enjoy their visit to Leinster House.