2026-05-13

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Canney, to the Chamber. Before we proceed with the statements, I welcome those in the Public Gallery who are looking down at us today. I particularly welcome Councillor Mick Delaney from Tullaroan. Joining him are active retirement groups from Kilkenny and Laois. You are all very welcome. I hope you enjoy your day with Councillor Delaney here at Leinster House. The group members had a lot of questions for me on the statements we are about to make. I was questioned sensibly on it and the need to have the cameras spread all over the country. They have a point of view as well, which they got across. I now call on the Minister of State to make his opening statement.

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I too welcome everyone in the Public Gallery to listen to the statements today. I welcome the opportunity to address the House and to update Members on the recently published National Safety Camera Strategy, and on road safety matters more generally. My colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, will deliver the closing statement. As many Deputies will be aware, the last five years have seen an increase in road-related fatalities and serious injuries. Last year was a particularly dark year when, tragically, 188 people lost their lives on roads, the highest total in a decade. While we have made great strides since our first national road safety strategy began in 1998, that progress is now in the past and we must do more to restore the downward trend of fatalities and serious injuries on our roads. Each death and serious injury impacts not just on the victim but on their family, their friends and the wider community. The four main causes of fatalities on our roads have been consistent over time and remain: speeding, distraction, not wearing a seatbelt and intoxicated driving. All four come down to driver behaviour and personal responsibility on the part of road users. Tackling dangerous behaviours can be addressed through road safety education and public awareness campaigns, enforcement of road traffic laws, improved engineering of our road spaces and longer-term legislative reform. We are working on multiple fronts to address these problems. Let me be clear that this Government is committed to improving road safety and reducing fatalities and serious injuries. The current national framework for road safety is set out in the Government’s fifth Road Safety Strategy 2021-2030, which was launched in December 2021. The strategy aligns with EU and UN targets and is based on the safe system approach, which is forgiving of individual human error. It aims to reduce road deaths and serious injuries by 50% this decade, and to achieving Vision Zero, which is as close as possible to zero fatalities or serious injuries on Irish roads, by 2050. The phase 2 action plan under the road safety strategy was published by my Department in July of last year for the period 2025 to 2027. This action plan comprises 12 primary transformative actions and 77 support actions. Delivering the action plan is a collaborative effort involving my Department and the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, together with An Garda Síochána, the Road Safety Authority, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, the National Transport Authority, the Courts Service, the Medical Bureau of Road Safety, the Health and Safety Authority and local authorities. Deputies will note that there are many experts across a range of partners collaborating to take action and deliver positive road safety outcomes, and I assure the House that progress is being made. Key deliverables for this year include passing the national vehicle and driver file Bill 2025 to allow local authorities to resume accepting and processing collision data. The next road traffic Bill is also under development to advance programme for Government commitments around graduated speed limits, penalties and the camera enforcement of mobile phone and seatbelt offences. We are also addressing the long-standing issue relating to repeat renewal of learner permits, with regulations coming into effect this November. These are examples of actions well under way and progressing at pace. On 29 April I published the first national safety camera strategy, which provides a framework for increased deployment of cameras across the road network in urban and rural locations. The use of cameras has been proven to reduce speeding and improve driver behaviour, and I am confident that implementation of this strategy will help us achieve our road safety targets. The strategy is a culmination of an extensive programme of work which was delivered under the phase 1 of the action plan for 2021-2024. Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, was tasked by my Department to develop a new safety camera strategy and TII served as chair and secretariat to an inter-agency working group that developed recommendations in this area. In addition to TII and my Department, the members of the working group include the Department of justice, An Garda Síochána, the National Transport Authority, the Courts Service, the Road Safety Authority and Dublin City Council. The work of this group built upon the findings and recommendations of the November 2023 report of the working group on camera-based enforcement of certain traffic offences. The group was not tasked with making proposals on the number of cameras to be deployed across the road network. Rather, in developing the strategy the working group focused on: mapping and understanding the current system, roles and responsibilities; analysing lessons learned from previous camera initiatives in Ireland; exploring best practice in other jurisdictions; assessing the optimal inter-agency partnerships for successful delivery; and formulating recommendations which were presented to the road safety leadership group. The working group identified and assessed potential options for delivering road camera systems and a draft report was submitted to my Department last year. Following this, my Department conducted a series of bilateral meetings over the subsequent period with stakeholders who would be tasked with implementing the strategy. The increased deployment of safety cameras in the coming years is a key action to be delivered under the phase 2 action plan. This priority action is being delivered collaboratively by road safety partners and aligns with commitments in the programme for Government. The national safety camera strategy focuses on speeding, red light running and bus lane infringements, with flexibility for the enforcement of other types of offence in future. Undoubtedly, speeding remains a serious safety concern on Irish roads. An RSA behavioural research study in 2025 showed that over 50% of drivers found it acceptable to exceed speed limits by up to 10 km/h and almost 30% of drivers found it acceptable to exceed the limit by more than 10 km/h. This behaviour leads to dangerous road traffic collisions, often resulting in fatalities and serious injuries. Cameras are proven to be an effective deterrent in changing behaviour. As outlined in the strategy, according to a meta-analysis, average-speed cameras significantly reduce the number of collisions, with the overall number estimated to fall by 30%, and fatal and serious injury collisions by 56%. A similar comparison with fixed cameras indicates that they have significantly reduced collisions by approximately 20%, and fatal and serious injury collisions by 15%. The National Safety Camera Strategy provides the required framework, with partnerships and responsibilities associated for the successful deployment of road safety cameras across the State. Effective delivery of a deployment programme will necessarily require collaboration by multiple State agencies ensuring appropriate use of skills and expertise. This includes An Garda Síochána, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, and the National Transport Authority, NTA. This approach was developed by the inter-agency working group led by TIl and was agreed by the road safety leadership group, which I chair, and which is driving implementation of the Government’s Road Safety Strategy 2021-2030. Under this agreed approach, TIl will be responsible for the management of fixed and average speed cameras, in partnership with An Garda Síochána, which will continue to be responsible for the enforcement of camera-detected speed offences. The NTA will assume the primary responsibility - both management and enforcement functions - for urban traffic management offences. This approach builds on well-established road safety relationships, ensuring that we continue to see effective enforcement of road traffic laws, which is a key pillar of road safety. This strategy provides a clear framework to strengthen the use of safety cameras in a way that is targeted, evidence-led and proportionate. Ultimately, the challenge is to change road user behaviour. Improved detection and enforcement of road traffic offences will promote better and safer driver behaviour and help protect all road users. A delivery focused camera enforcement oversight group comprising key stakeholders is being established to implement the National Safety Camera Strategy. Membership of the group will include senior leaders from An Garda Síochána, the NTA, TIl, RSA, the Courts Service and the local authority sector. The detail of both TIl's and the NTA’s expanded roles will be developed with the assistance of the group and resourcing requirements will be considered for An Garda Síochána, TIl and the NTA in conjunction with parent Departments. The oversight group will: co-ordinate the activities of agencies involved in camera operation; collate, analyse and report on data on performance, for example, compliance and payment rates; keep the safety camera handbook up to date; undertake or task research to move forward the goals of the proposed new structure; and engage with my Department and the Department of justice on legislative, policy and funding matters. The group will agree its terms of reference and work plan to ensure successful implementation of the strategy. This includes agreeing at its first meeting an immediate set of short-term actions to start implementation. I expect the first meeting of this group to take place in the coming weeks. The group will report progress to the road safety leadership group. In addition, my Department will continue to work closely with all road safety stakeholders to ensure that the National Safety Camera Strategy is fully implemented. In developing the strategy, the inter-agency working group, chaired by TII, also developed a corresponding safety camera handbook. This sets out the process to be implemented when selecting locations for safety camera deployment and currently it sets out the process for the selection and prioritisation of speed cameras and red-light cameras. The handbook has been designed in such a way as to allow for additional chapters for other camera systems to be added in the future. It follows an evidence-based approach, so that cameras are located where they have the greatest potential for collision and casualty reduction. It should also be noted that individual agencies and offices remain responsible for their core functions, including deployment of cameras across the road network. This remains the case in the interim period before the strategy is fully implemented. With regard to current camera enforcement activity, I can assure the House that this has increased across the road network since late 2024. An Garda Síochána, with the assistance of TIl and local authorities has deployed nine new static safety cameras in nine counties across the road network. In addition, three new average-speed cameras have been deployed in Cavan, Mayo and Meath, bringing the total in use to five average-speed cameras in operation. Complementing these additional cameras, An Garda Síochána, through the mobile safety camera programme, delivered under contract by GoSafe, provides 9,000 hours of monitoring on our roads each month. This has increased from 7,500 hours in 2024. From 1 January An Garda Síochána introduced 390 new safety-camera zones, including 55 community request safety-camera zones, bringing the total to 1,901 safety camera zones nationwide. My focus as Minister of State and the focus of my Department and of all the road safety stakeholders we work with is on the delivery of phase 2 of the action plan. This was developed by experts, is based on Irish experience, and considers best practice in other countries. Our focus must be on the delivery of these agreed actions. In that regard, the publication of the National Safety Camera Strategy is another step towards delivering this work. The use of safety cameras has been proven to reduce speeding and improve driver behaviour. I am confident that safety cameras will be an effective deterrent to motorists speeding and will further enhance the enforcement capabilities of An Garda Síochána. The increased use of cameras can help us achieve our road safety targets, including working towards Vision Zero. I look forward to hearing from the Deputies on this important topic.

Every day we step out into a world of movement with cars rushing to work, cyclists weaving through traffic and pedestrians crossing streets in hope and in trust. The road connects us but too often it has become a place of tragedy, a tragedy that is preventable. In the Twenty-six Counties there were 190 deaths last year. With the proper infrastructure, enforcement and resources, we can save lives but the Government has failed on three fronts. The National Safety Camera Strategy represents an opportunity to rectify the mistakes of the past but I fear that it may fall far short. Everybody wants to improve road safety and prevent tragedy on our roads but what is being presented here simply does not meet the urgency of the crisis we face. Let me be clear: the automated enforcement cameras can play a role in saving lives. International evidence shows they reduce collisions and serious injuries but the reality is that this is not a fully-fledged strategy. At the moment, it is a framework and is not ready for delivery. That matters because we are in the middle of a road safety emergency. I have said how many people lost their lives on Irish roads last year. It was the highest figure in a decade and nine of those were in my county. Deaths across the European Union fell by 3% but fatalities here rose by 7%. Since 2019, the divergence is even more stark. Since then, road deaths in Ireland have increased by 31% but across the EU they are down by 15%. Europe is saving lives but Ireland is going backwards. When the Government asks us to support the strategy, we must ask whether this a serious effort or whether a serious effort been made to date. When we examine the details, the shortcomings are obvious. There are no clear timelines for roll-out, no measurable targets, no KPIs and no cost-benefit analysis. In other words, there is no way for this House or the public to hold the Government to account for its delivery. Of more concern is the failure to address fundamental legal questions. The strategy acknowledges and effectively sets aside critical issues around data protection, enforcement powers and evidential standards. These go to the very heart of whether the system can function and ignoring them will not make them go away. It will simply create the conditions for delay, legal challenge and possible failure down the line. We also have a model here that could lead to unnecessary complexity and confusion. Under the strategy, responsibilities are divided between TII, An Garda Síochána and the NTA. That may look like collaboration, but where is the accountability and is there a possibility of duplication or bureaucratic inefficiency? We cannot ignore the reality of our current enforcement system. Under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, roads policing has collapsed. This matter was dealt with by the Joint Committee on Transport this morning. There are 400 fewer gardaí working in road traffic than there were 15 years ago, according to PARC Road Safety Group. The latter stated that in 2009, there were 1,046 members of what was then known as the Garda traffic corps. By December 2025, the number of personnel had fallen to 647. In some regions, the number of gardaí involved in road policing has halved since 2009. There are 40 fewer vehicles tied to traffic units compared with that time. Most crucially, in 2007 - and this is a very interesting statistic - there were over 20,000 checks at the side of the road in respect of people driving under the influence. Last year, there were fewer than 5,000 such checks, which represents a 75% reduction. We also heard from Dr. Sheila Gilheany from Alcohol Action Ireland at the Joint Committee on Transport's meeting this morning. She stated that alcohol is factor in 35% of deaths on Irish roads. In places like Australia, the number stands at 14%. The answers are obvious, because we are not tackling this matter in the way we did back in 2007. The number of stops and checks is in free fall. In the context of the gardaí we do have, there are serious issues as well, which we saw outlined in the Crowe report. That report not only made it clear that roads policing was under-resourced and ineffective but also that there are other issues. It is important to note that the collapse in roads policing has occurred as the scope and scale of the responsibilities have increased. We have more cars, heavier traffic and more complex road risks than ever before, yet the number of gardaí expected to do the work to address this has decreased. We are not going to deliver safer roads with fewer gardaí, fewer Garda vehicles and limited technology. For example, gardaí had to wait seven years to access the roads policing mobility app, which includes vital information such as motorist penalty points and court disqualifications. They are still awaiting access to further information, including driving licence photographs and people's signatures. That is not good enough. Against that backdrop, what confidence can the public have that this expanded system will actually be enforced? There is also a real risk that increased automation will overwhelm the under-resourced, underfunded system by overloading the fixed charge notice process and creating backlogs of appeals. This is not just about cameras; it is also about capacity, and capacity is already overstretched. Even if all of that were resolved, we must ask another question. Is enforcement alone enough? The answer is "No". The transport committee has repeatedly heard that cameras are effective, but only as part of a broader approach that includes better road design and stronger policing. Better road design is particularly important at a time when we are dealing with an increased number of cyclists being killed or seriously injured on our roads. Without these measures, the impact of the strategy will be limited. We must recognise that fatalities are only part of the story. The number of serious injuries may be significantly under-reported. Between 2020 and 2024, over 11,000 people were hospitalised compared to only 7,400 recorded by gardaí. This is the true cost. There is a question over the data that are there. The context is a rising death toll, a worsening European situation and a system under strain, and what we have is a document that gives rise to more questions than it answers. We do not want more frameworks. We need to know that when cyclists, drivers or pedestrians take to our roads or footpaths, they will get home safely. We need a plan that is detailed, legally robust, properly resourced and ready to deliver, but we also need more gardaí and more visibility. Everybody knows that when there is more visibility on the streets, the number of public order offences decrease. There needs to be more visibility at the times of day that road traffic fatalities and serious injuries actually occur, which is late at night and on country roads.

Speeding is one of the leading causes of road collisions in Ireland. Last year, 2025, was the worst year for road fatalities in more than ten years and road collision statistics show that there is a growing trend that Irish roads are becoming less safe. Last year, an Garda Síochána recorded 190 fatalities on our roads and over 1,000 people being injured as a result of collisions. Each statistic represents a life lost, a wider family devastated and demonstrates the constant work needed to make our roads safe for all who use them. The deployment of speed cameras and speed monitoring systems is one tool that can tackle speeding and that can make our roads safer. This strategy has been long overdue but, regrettably, it appears to be more of a scoping exercise rather than an implementable plan. When we look into the actual detail of the strategy, it appears that the Minister and his Department have no willingness to reform the operation of speed cameras and that they are committed to sticking with the same failed multi-agency approach. This comes at a time when the Government is spending millions of euro on a contract with the GoSafe company for the provision of mobile speed camera vans. In 2024, the State paid almost €18 million to GoSafe for the provision of approximately 58 speed camera vans. This works out at the State paying roughly €31,000 for the operation of each speed camera van per year. I would seriously question whether that represents value for money. This strategy also rules out the possibility of An Garda Síochána taking full ownership of the deployment and operation of speed cameras. There was no detailed cost evaluation within the strategy to merit this decision, and it appears that the favoured operation models are just an exercise in the Minister of State making minor changes to a system that is fundamentally not working. Sadly, this lack of ambition on the part of the Government is yet another example of how it is not taking road safety seriously enough. Before Christmas, the Minister of State backtracked on the Department of Transport's plans to reform the Road Safety Authority, RSA. This followed the publication of the Indecon report in 2024 that recommended splitting the RSA into two separate bodies, one with responsible for road safety and one to oversee processes such as driver testing and the national car test, NCT, service. Months on from this decision, we are no closer to seeing any reform of the RSA. When we see road collision outcomes going in the wrong direction, it is clear that something has to change but the Government does not seem to get it and all the while, more and more people are involved in road traffic collisions. There is clearly a need for action in the way this Government approaches road safety policy and in the way it implements road safety measures, including the deployment of speed cameras. This national speed camera strategy is a missed opportunity to deliver real reform in the area of road safety. I call on the Minister of State to deliver meaningful action in this area that ensures that there is effective speed detection that reduces the risks on our roads and that this is done in a cost-effective way for taxpayers.

I thank the Deputy. I understand Deputy Ahern is sharing time.

I am sharing time with Deputy Lawlor. As we are discussing this issue today, I am thinking of Fiona Holland, who was a teacher in Scoil Maelruain's Senior National School in Old Bawn in my constituency. She tragically passed away last week following a road accident in Terenure. Fiona played a huge role in her community and was loved by her students. I know what a huge impact her loss has been and will be on her community. My thoughts today are with her family and friends and the staff and pupils in Scoil Maelruain. We are going in the wrong direction when it comes to road safety and have been for some time. We made a lot of progress in the early 2000s and 2010s, but somewhere along the line we seem to have got complacent and we are seeing a reversal of the trend. We need to take a holistic approach when it comes to road safety. It involves a number of overlapping elements, including planning, investment, road infrastructure and design, public transport provision, rural connectivity, driver behaviour, the overall coherence of Government policy and, of course, enforcement of the rules of the road and the realistic prospect that dangerous driving will be caught. I have long said that traffic cameras have a pivotal role to play, particularly in terms of influencing driver behaviour. To be fair, the Minister of State has acknowledged on a number of occasions that driver behaviour has increasingly become an issue, but it is in that context that I find the whole safety camera strategy just a little underwhelming. Not only are there serious weaknesses in and omissions from the strategy, there is also a striking lack of ambition. The strategy itself admits that speeding remains widespread on Irish roads. It cites RSA research showing that 77% of drivers speed and that a majority of motorists consider modest speeding as being socially acceptable. That is pretty alarming given the trends in road deaths here. The strategy also acknowledges the proven effectiveness of camera enforcement. It cites evidence showing that average speed cameras can reduce fatal and serious injury collisions by up to 56%. If the evidence is that strong, why is the strategy so timid? Why, after years of rising fatalities on our roads, are we dealing with a document that appears to be more concerned with governance charts than administrative structures? The former have a role to play but are not more important than measurable outcomes. The strategy repeatedly promises future consideration of further measures instead of immediate concrete delivery. One of the clearest examples of this is the continued absence of any meaningful progress on seat belt and mobile phone detection cameras. The Government has repeatedly stated that these technologies are being considered. When members of the Opposition have asked questions about timelines or implementation, however, we have been told to wait for this National Safety Camera Strategy. The strategy has arrived, but it provides virtually no clarity. The document merely states that mobile phone and seat belt detection cameras may be introduced in future once legislation is in place. There is no timeline. There is no implementation roadmap, no legislative schedule and no delivery target. There is nothing. At a time when distracted driving has become one of the greatest dangers on our roads, the Government is still stuck at the stage of consideration. We know the reality. We see motorists every day scrolling through their phones at traffic lights, texting and watching Netflix on motorways. People are driving while visibly distracted, and we have got these TV-like displays in newer cars that add to the mix. We know the devastating consequences that driver distraction can cause. Likewise, seat-belt non-compliance continues to contribute to deaths and catastrophic injuries on our roads. I note that the strategy says its focus is primarily on cameras to detect speeding, people running red lights and committing offences relating to bus lanes, but we need a holistic approach to road safety. I cannot get my head around why mobile phone use and seat belt non-compliance would not be included, particularly when the technology is available and when we know the impact of those offences. The absence of any meaningful targets or performance indicators is a major weakness. For a strategy that references Vision Zero and reducing the number of fatalities, it is astonishing how little measurable ambition is included. It says nothing about how many cameras we need or how many we hope to have by a certain date. If, for example, we were to have a similar number to Sweden, we would need approximately 430 traffic cameras nationwide. There is nothing in the strategy about how we will measure its success or failure. There are no concrete deployment targets, no annual benchmarks, no performance indicators and no measurable timelines for expansions. Basically, there are no means by which we can hold the Minister of State to account. Instead, we are given vague references to incremental progress and modelling exercises. The closest the strategy gets to setting a target for cameras is where it states "it could be feasible to aim to implement 10-20 new camera locations each year initially ... [while appreciating] that ... other European countries have considerably more cameras." That is about as weak an ambition as I can imagine. At that rate, comprehensive national coverage would take decades. Without clear key performance indicators, KPIs, the Government will always be able to claim the strategy is progressing regardless of outcomes. We need measurable targets and to monitor performance that we can say that the cameras are seeing success and changing driver behaviour, if speeding is down or if the number of people break red lights reduces. Unfortunately, we will not know that based on the model that is being outlined in this strategy. Under this strategy, a number of new roles are assigned to local authorities. The strategy states that local authorities will help identify sites, conduct feasibility assessments, liaising with landowners and support implementation, but where is the discussion of resources and funding? Presumably, these new responsibilities will require new staff, but there is no mention of that in the strategy. Local authorities across Ireland are already overstretched. Many engineering and roads departments are operating under severe staffing pressures already. Councils are being asked to deliver active travel projects, housing infrastructure, flood mitigation, public realm improvements and road maintenance. That is all great, but it is all being done with finite resources. The strategy casually assigns additional responsibilities without explaining how these responsibilities will be supported. We are fully behind greater decentralisation, but what we are increasingly seeing is responsibility being decentralised while resources are not. Local authorities are essential partners in road safety delivery but council workers will be looking at this plan and thinking how the hell are they supposed to take on these new responsibilities if they are not getting any additional investment or staffing. One of the more confusing aspects of this strategy is the extraordinary lack of clarity around governance and institutional reform. The document repeatedly refers to phases 1 and 2 implementation. Nowhere are those phases defined in terms of timelines. We have no clarity on when phase 1 will end and phase 2 will begin. We have no measurables, so we do not know what sort of milestones need to be achieved in phase 1 before we move to phase 2. To add to the confusion, the strategy splits responsibility for safety cameras across two public agencies, namely Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, and an as-yet-unnamed agency, and the Garda, with these different bodies managing various elements of the system. This is basically a rejection of the international evidence and best practice guidance that a well-resourced centralised authority is needed. It is further complicated by the strategy working group recommending, in the long term, the establishment of a new public body to achieve the full ambition of the strategy and take on the responsibility of both public bodies that will be responsible for cameras in the short term. I do not know how this reconciles with the Minister's row-back on the commitment to establish a new road safety authority to take over certain functions of the RSA. Is this a row-back on the row-back? What will it mean for the RSA into the future? This strategy proposes the potential creation of another major body in the road safety space without any meaningful explanation of how it will fit within the wider institutional landscape.

With the Leas-Cheann Comhairle's blessing, I welcome the boys and girls from Castlebridge National School in Wexford. It is a historic place in Wexford. In fact, the Castlebridge team was the first Wexford team to win an all-Ireland hurling championship. The Leas-Cheann Comhairle, being a Kilkenny man, will no doubt look at that fact with envy. The measures that were taken over the years in relation to road safety were working. If we look at the figures for 2018, we can see that, tragically, there were 139 road deaths. That was the lowest in modern times. The number of people killed in one year on Irish roads 40 years before that was 628. I refer to these tragic figures to indicate to the Minister of State that the measures we were taking in terms of enforcement of seat belt use, drink-driving and safety and in bringing the people along with us were working. When we put the resources into combating deaths on our roads and improving road safety, they actually work. In the context of a road safety camera strategy, it is essential that we roll-out static cameras. I want to raise again - the Leas-Cheann Comhairle will be familiar with this - the static camera in Glenmore in County Kilkenny, which is causing turmoil for thousands of people. You are in a 100 km zone, you arrive at an 80 km speed sign and you do not have time to slow down safely and correctly before you are right on top of the camera. Hundreds if not thousands of people, the safest of drivers, have been caught for speeding and given points. People are coming to me saying that it is not so much the fines that break their hearts. These are individuals with unblemished licences who are being issued with points. I ask for the Minister of State's personal intervention on this. The camera is welcome. This is an issue of signage. The road is dangerous but, we need to ensure fairness for people.

The students from Wexford are very welcome.

I welcome the publication of the National Safety Camera Strategy. I do so not only as a TD but also as Chair of the Joint Committee on Transport, for which, as the Minister of State will be aware, road safety has become one of the most urgent and consistent issues for discussion. As the Minister of State will be aware, in recent months the committee has undertaken a focused programme of work in this area. Of course, that is against the backdrop of a continued increase in road fatalities, with the most recent figures confirming the highest number of deaths in recent years. There were 190 lives lost last year. Fifty-eight have so far been lost this year. I personally thank the Minister of State for his close co-operation with the committee's work. The Minister of State is due to appear before the committee in the coming weeks. Of course, every statistic represents a family and a community dealing with devastating loss. I mention also the serious impacts that extend far beyond fatalities, including long-term disability, loss of employment, family trauma and mental health impacts. Only today, the joint committee heard evidence from Alcohol Action Ireland that Ireland has the lowest rate of roadside breath testing in the European Union. That should concern every one of us in this House. We must, therefore, recognise a very simple truth, that technology alone will not solve the road safety crisis that we face. Nonetheless, I want to be clear. We can and should invest in cameras, in enforcement technology and in data-led interventions. Cameras detect speeding. They can identify people running red lights and support safer driving behaviour. That is why this strategy is so important and most welcome. The expansion of fixed safety cameras, average speed cameras, red light enforcement and a broader use of intelligence enforcement technology represents a significant step forward. International evidence shows us that these measures can reduce collisions and save lives. We had 200,000 road traffic offences last year with 126,000 related to speeding, of which 45,000 were for exceeding the 100 km/h speed limit. I acknowledge the work being done across the Government, in particular by the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, and the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and by An Garda Síochána, the RSA, local authorities, victim advocacy groups like PARC, and many other organisations and NGOs to modernise our approach to road safety. However, if we are serious about reducing deaths and serious injuries on our roads, we cannot consider or treat this strategy as the silver bullet. While it is important, the reality is that cameras do not pull over impaired drivers or detect drunk or drug driving on the roadside. We know from evidence this morning that alcohol is a factor in one third of all fatalities. Cameras do not replace Garda roads policing units operating in our communities, on rural and regional roads, and at times when dangerous behaviour is most prevalent. That is why any serious road safety strategy must include a substantial strengthening of our roads policing unit, which currently stands at in the region of 650 members. Back in 2010 when we had 1 million fewer cars on the road, I believe it stood at 1,050. More gardaí assigned to our roads policing unit is crucial. It means greater roadside testing capability and stronger enforcement against drink driving, drug driving and insurance offences. It means ensuring that enforcement is visible, consistent and nationwide. Of course, enforcement alone is not enough. Road safety begins with road design and too many of our roads are unforgiving, particularly in rural areas. There are junctions that people fear using every day, roads without safe walking or cycling infrastructure and communities divided by dangerous driving conditions. That is why we need sustained investment in safer infrastructure. We need greater delivery of low-cost safety-improvement schemes, which is crucial. We need safer junctions, better lighting, traffic calming, pedestrian crossings and segregated cycling infrastructure. We need to continue to invest in active travel. Better and safer walking and cycling infrastructure not only supports climate and health goals but it saves lives. I assure this House and the Minister of State of the focused work that is ongoing by the transport committee. We intend to provide leadership by identifying concrete actions and making strong recommendations to the Government and other relevant agencies, including key actions that can be implemented in a timely manner. We all agree that we need urgency and, above all else, delivery. Every statistic in road accidents represents a person, a family and a community devastated. While I welcome this strategy and the positive role that technology can play, I believe we must now match that ambition with stronger enforcement, better investment, better planning of infrastructure, better co-ordination and political will. I again acknowledge the strength of that political will in the Minister of State. If we do that, this strategy can become part of a genuine turning point in road safety in Ireland.

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak in today's debate. Central to all of this have to be the victims of road accidents. My own dear mother-in-law, Mary Fehilly, passed away around 18 months ago and it just left the family feeling hollow. What I have found every day since is that you very much tune into the radio when you hear of an accident up the country. Heretofore, you would hear an awful report of a life lost on the road and feel a bit disconnected from about, but now it very much connects you to those families and the tragedies that others are experiencing around the country. Central to all that we speak about today must be the families impacted by deaths and lifelong injuries on our roads. I sit on the transport committee and the Minister of State has been quite good to engage with us. I thank him for everything he is trying to do in the Department. He has been a very progressive and energetic Minister of State in taking on his portfolio. There are a few points I wish to specifically raise. Of course, we are talking about the automated speed-detection cameras. They are very effective on the M7 motorway near Birdhill as people leave Limerick heading for Dublin, a road I often travel. They detect people speeding and lead to penalty points and convictions. They also ensure that a lot of people slow right down when they see them. Unfortunately, when they reach the other side of those speed cameras, they tend to speed up again. That kind of technology needs a more nationwide roll-out, which I would certainly welcome. Recently, the Minister of State was very kind to meet with a delegation that I had brought here to Leinster House to discuss the N68 road, which leaves Ennis, heads out to west Clare and passes through a village called Darragh. In that vicinity there are many entrances and exits onto a national road. It might be called a national road, but it very much has local usage. It has a shop, local school, sports pitches and a litany of entrances into and out of houses and farmyards in that area. The Minister of State met Mairéad Collins, Michael Fitzgibbon and Kevin McNamee here in Leinster House. They brought maps and brought forward proposals. Since then, I understand that Clare County Council has also brought a submission to him. What is the status of that? There has been a €2 million allocation to that stretch of the N68 at Darragh for pavement overlay on the road. While all roads can do with a touch-up and resurfacing, this road could do with some of that money being syphoned over to road safety measures. I would love to hear something on that front. The N85 road, also in County Clare, is the main spine road that goes from Ennis into the north of the county. Every single day, thousands of people travel on that road, heading back to the Cliffs of Moher. The Cliffs of Moher are now Ireland's premier tourism site and there is a huge amount of pressure on that road, which was never built for that volume of traffic. The road has recently been highlighted by Councillor Shane Talty from Ennistymon and supported by Councillor Joe Killeen. Michael Vaughan, a prominent hotelier in Ennistymon, has also been flagging this. They really want to bring to the Minister of State's attention that, in spite of some significant events happening there next year, including the Irish Open and the Walker Cup, there is no plan to do something significant on this road. It is not fit for purpose at the moment, yet we next year expect the world and its mother to travel back through that north Clare road - the N85 - heading for golf events. The future mobility campus in Shannon in County Clare is testing a whole load of new technologies that could be used for road safety. The city of Aachen in Germany is a really good example where the entire Ford fleet of cars are geofenced, so if the speed limit is 60 km/h, the car is forced by geofencing to slow down to 60 km/h. No matter what the driver wants to do, he or she is compelled to stick to the speed limit that by technology. Indeed, some Irish people are pioneering this technology. At some time, I would love the Minister of State to come to the future mobility campus and embrace some of these new technologies. I wish him well in his Department. As I said, central to everything we do here have to be the victims of those awful accidents that are becoming far too frequent on our roads.

This debate must first of all reflect on the carnage on our roads in 2025, a year in which 185 lives were lost in crashes and accidents. This was the highest fatality rate in over a decade. It was a year in which we saw the previous trends of progress in this area not just stalled, but actually reversed. That momentum of tragic reversal has continued in 2026. I think everyone here recognises that safety cameras are not a silver bullet, but they can help to make our roads less dangerous. In the context of that ongoing tragedy on our roads, the delay in the publication of this report was really baffling. We know that the draft report was submitted to the Minister of State in May last year. That is a year ago now and that year has been a very dark one for road safety in our country. This is something I have raised in the Chamber and in the committee on a number of occasions. Instead of the emergency roll-out of technology that we know works, we saw a year of bilateral meetings and a review. However, while the Minister of State was reviewing this document, our roads were becoming increasingly lethal. That vision zero goal, Ireland's commitment to eliminating road deaths by 2050, becomes less like a target and more like a mirage when the primary tool for enforcement is stuck in a departmental inbox for a full calendar year. I believe the strategy that has been published falls short in a number of key areas. The primary and most glaring issue is that there are no timelines for the implementation of the strategy. In particular, it is clear that this strategy, if it is to work, requires significant legislative changes to deliver on its key elements, yet there is no commitment to a clear legislative timeline to do that. I am not clear why the Government would publish a strategy of such significance without tagging on a clear timeline with it, given the extent to which it has already been delayed and the urgency with which everybody speaking in this Chamber today is going to treat this particular matter. A strategy is just a beginning. There needs to be a clear commitment to deliver on it. Without timelines attached, it is hard to see where that commitment becomes apparent. Bearing in mind the urgency with which I believe the roll-out of safety cameras must be treated, I would like to highlight a couple of areas in my constituency and around the country that some of my Green Party colleagues have flagged with me and that could be changed for the better by the introduction of these cameras. In my own constituency, I would point to the Kempton estate, just off the Navan Road and close to the Ashtown roundabout. Residents seeking to exit the estate onto the Navan Road, or pedestrians trying to cross the road to get to a bus stop or access the Phoenix Park, are put at risk by cars that are speeding, but in particular by cars running red lights at that junction. This location would be perfect for red light cameras. I read through this report, which gives us a brief history of red light cameras and of a pilot that was done in 2015, but there is no clarity on how residents in Kempton, or residents in hundreds of other areas that would benefit from this technology, will actually see an improvement in their situations because of the publication of this report. Let us not forget that, in January, the National Transport Authority confirmed that, pending a decision on the strategy that has just been published, it will not proceed with developing camera enforcement at a small number of isolated locations, including proposed sites in Dublin. Therefore, the delay of the publication of this report is the reason the NTA is delaying rolling out enforcement cameras around the country, including in Dublin. Now that the strategy has been published, what will happen next? Is the Minister of State going to indicate to the NTA that he backs red light cameras - not just that he is verbally backing them, but that he will be coming through with funding as well? When will residents in Kempton and the hundreds of other places around the country that could benefit from these cameras see a tangible result from the publication of this report, which has been delayed for so long? In inner city Dublin, there is a specific need for these cameras to keep vital public transport moving, and I would cite the Luas in particular. The Luas green line is experiencing delays in crossing the quays due to drivers remaining in yellow boxes. The Luas cannot get through and, of course, given the length of the Luas, it ends up blocking everything. Targeted enforcement of yellow boxes via cameras would prevent this. Similarly, on the red line, cameras are needed where Luas junctions intersect with car traffic to prevent encroachment on the line, which has previously led to crashes where full trams have been taken out of service. At Doyle's Corner in Dublin 7, for example, one of the busiest intersections in the city for bus and car traffic, there are issues with red light jumping, putting pedestrians at risk and delaying bus routes. Similarly, at the bus gates on the quays, we have seen repeated instances of cars intermingling with buses and slowing down public transport. This is mirrored in other bus lanes, such as the southbound lane from Broombridge. Moving to the home county of the Minister of State, at Eyre Square in Galway, the high volume of pedestrians makes it particularly dangerous when a car runs a red light. Cameras are needed to keep pedestrians safe. The Newcastle Road-N6 intersection is also noteworthy because that junction gets a high volume of cars travelling in both directions. Galway has planned for bus gates to be rolled out as part of BusConnects, whenever that is fully funded. It will need camera enforcement to ensure those bus gates are obeyed and that the issues we are seeing in Dublin, which I have already cited, are not repeated. The city council has not yet said how this will be enforced, but the view of my colleague, Niall Murphy, is that there should be cameras to ensure smooth movement of public transport through the bus gates. These are just a couple of examples of areas where cameras could make a real difference to making public transport more efficient and, in particular, increasing road safety for all users. The Government needs to offer that clarity on timelines and actions. It is important to note, that in the EU context, we are real outliers in this regard. As of today, we have just nine static cameras and five average speed camera zones in operation across the entire road network. We can compare that to France, which has over 4,000, or the UK, where these types of cameras have been part of the fabric of roads policing for decades. In comparison to those countries, it is clear that we are trying to police a 21st century network with 20th century tools. Static cameras are a significant improvement in technology over mobile vans. They are visible and predictable and they preclude behaviour like slowing down for a speed van before speeding up once it is passed. They change behaviour on our roads by being consistent, and that changed behaviour goes on to save lives. The people in my constituency and the other areas I have mentioned will not be protected by a strategy that just exists as a PDF online. We need to see three immediate steps. The first is a definitive roll-out timeline. We need to know exactly when the next 50 cameras and beyond will be operational, not "in the coming months", but with specific dates. Second, we need to see increased roads policing. Cameras are a force multiplier, but they cannot replace the physical presence of gardaí. The decline in the number of dedicated roads policing members must be reversed. Third, we need transparency in revenue and safety objectives. Too often, speed cameras are viewed as revenue raising rather than as the safety devices that they primarily are. We must proactively communicate the safety gains made through the use of cameras. We must ring-fence the revenue earned from them directly for road safety and better infrastructure. We have the means to make our roads safer, we have the data that tells us where the accidents happen and we now have this strategy. What we have to ensure now is the delivery of this strategy. The 185 families who were in mourning in 2025 are looking for us to act. We need to take that action now.

I acknowledge the work of the Minister of State, the NTA and other bodies in establishing and creating this national safety camera strategy. After a period of improvement and positive trends in relation to road deaths, which were 472 in 1997 and dropped to 137 in 2021, that trend is now reversing. There were 190 deaths in 2025 and 175 in 2024. It is critical that action be taken to improve road safety for citizens across the country. With regard to the new governance, the Garda is responsible for the enforcement of camera-detected speed offences. What is critical is that those locations be examined properly. I am thinking of Kildare, in particular the N4, and I am sure the Minister of State has seen this when travelling from Galway to Dublin. Time and again, we see speed vans in hidden locations, particularly on motorways. We see drivers putting their foot on the brake extremely quickly to try to avoid detection, with all the danger that causes on the motorway. It is something An Garda Síochána needs to be very reticent to do. It has to be admitted that it is bad driver behaviour to be speeding on a motorway or any road. However, I have seen instances, particularly in poor weather, where the location of the speed cameras can cause additional danger to road users. I ask An Garda Síochána and all bodies to be mindful of that. One point in the strategy is the establishment of the camera enforcement oversight group, which will be extremely welcome in its role in co-ordinating operations, data, research and policy needs. What I would ask, and what I have not seen in the strategy, is that there would be a feedback loop from public representatives and the public at large. That would be extremely welcome and helpful to the work of the oversight group. The members of An Garda Síochána see the black spots and understand where particular incidents can happen. However, members of the public also have historic knowledge of bends and bad turns, which would be quite useful. That is something that should be looked at in respect of this particular strategy. Looking at the scope of enforcement, I welcome the fact that there is a focus on speeding, as well as red light offences and bus lane offences. However, this all comes down to poor and bad driver behaviour. I think we all acknowledge and realise that. This is not excusing any of that bad driver behaviour, but what we have seen, in large urban settings in particular, is traffic congestion. I look at Kildare, Maynooth, Kilcock, Celbridge, Leixlip and Naas. Nearly every town in the county is growing exponentially and the traffic is growing with it. It causes great frustration to everybody. I think of young parents under severe pressure trying to pick up one child from one school and then get to another school to pick up the other kid, for example, if they are in a boys school and a girls school. Traffic congestion adds to bad driver behaviour. As I said, I am not excusing in any way, shape or form bad driver behaviour, but we have to understand the reasons behind bad driver behaviour. It is not just people acting out of badness. A lot of the time, it is due to stress, time and whatever it may be. Galway is a good example of a city that is growing exponentially. There is talk of progressing the ring road there, which is great news for the people of Galway. A ring road is now being built in Maynooth. In Celbridge, a second bridge is needed. Leixlip is completely congested as well. When we are building out and building more homes and communities in these towns, what is crucial is that we build the physical infrastructure, particularly the road infrastructure, to go with it. If we do not, then we have seen the evidence that it leads to bad driver behaviour. I would ask that this be considered in the future.

I want to immediately draw the Minister of State's attention to some of the issues that are faced in my constituency of Carlow-Kilkenny. I feel that is the most effective way of contributing to this debate. Earlier, I had the privilege of welcoming a group from Tullaroan with Councillor Michael Delaney. Councillor Delaney and that group discussed in great detail the matter that we are now discussing. They brought to my attention a number of concerns that they had. They wondered, and rightly so, if the technology was there to identify the registration plate on a vehicle, why could it not be used to cross over and check the insurance, tax and so forth. Where stands that in relation to legislation or implementation? People who live along stretches of road where they experience the speed and the dangers of speed, and sometimes the accidents that occur out of that, would like to see something done. They cannot understand why there is such an inordinate delay in dealing with all of this. Static cameras were mentioned by Deputy Lawlor in relation to Glenmore and the N24. It is a fact that the cameras work, but signage is necessary as you come into that stretch of road. I ask that there be some crossover with the councils or TII to ensure that there is sufficient notification on the road to indicate the speed, request a reduction in that speed and say that the cameras are there. The same could be said for the road into Dublin from Kilkenny. These signs are hugely important and contribute to the type of driver behaviour that we want to achieve, which is to act within the limits, drive responsibly and acknowledge the law. Glenmore is a particularly busy road. Work is to be done on that road. The signage, which the Minister of State might come back to me on, is essential. When the former Deputy Shane Ross was a Minister, he came to visit Kilkenny. He looked at the road from Kilkenny city - the Waterford Road - out to the roundabout, particularly at Danesfort. I have lobbied the council, TII and the current Minister to take action on that stretch of road, which has seen a number of fatalities. Danesfort GAA Club is hugely actively there and a real anchor in the community. It is a very busy junction, but in spite of all of that, they refer to figures and analysis that simply do not give any indication of what is really happening on the ground and the real fears that people - residents and road users - in the area have. Likewise, it is the same thing in relation to the R704, the Mullinavat road to New Ross. The local residents have complained over a long period about the 2.4 km of road that is dangerous and requires signage, work and prevention in terms of the speed that vehicles are travelling. Sean Maher, a local activist, wrote to me about this - not to just complain, but to suggest ways by which this could be dealt with. Again, the local authority has been lobbied for immediate action. That has not happened. It has to go through a long, convoluted process to get to the point where an acknowledgement is given of the dangers that exist and then the work is required thereafter. If the Minister of State could shorten the process and give due consideration to local people and their complaints, it would help greatly in our work to assist the Minister of State to ensure that there is greater safety on our roads.

I want to bring to the Minister of State's attention a road in south Kilkenny, the N25. For years, there has been a campaign to put safety measures in place on this road. It is welcome that the cameras have been put in place, but cameras alone are not going to solve this road. It needs huge attention. I bring to the Minister of State's attention the fact that TII has said that there is enough signage and notice going towards where the cameras are. Numerous people have contacted me and I have driven the road. There is not enough signage coming into the road. People are heading for the boat in Wexford. They are coming close to where the cameras are, but the cameras are getting them before they know it. It is dark and they are going down for the boat. They are not seeing the signage. They have driven the road the year before. One lady got three points. By the time she reaches where the signage is, she has already reached the camera. She cannot slow down in time for it. She has never been a bad driver, but she is getting caught. She got three points going to the boat on her holidays. Guess what? On the way back, she got another three points. There are numerous cases of people, not just from Kilkenny, but from Wexford and Carlow. Anybody travelling along that road is getting points on their licence. The signage is not good enough. I welcome cameras. The people in south Kilkenny welcomed these cameras, but it is unfair that people do not have enough signage coming into where the cameras are. People are using that road maybe once a year to go on their holidays, and all of a sudden, it has changed. I find that very unfair. The other side of it is that cameras alone will not solve the issues on these roads. This road in particular has a huge volume of traffic on it. It was never built for that traffic. I ask the Minister of State to look into these. I am sure he will find there has been a huge volume of penalties on that road. I urge the Minister of State to look into this. The drivers are going into a 100 km/h zone. For anything over a reasonable rate, those points should be taken off them. It is unfair when there is not enough signage going into it.

I have to say I found the previous speaker's contribution strange, to put it mildly. For the Sinn Féin speaker to be trying to circumvent speeding on our roads when we see the dangers that are on our roads is incredibly bizarre, to put it mildly. In any event, I welcome the publication of the National Safety Camera Strategy and congratulate the Minister of State on his continued efforts to use modern technology to address what is a major issue in Ireland today. In my constituency Irish Rail has already commenced a strategy at the Merrion Gates DART crossing for camera-based enforcement for road traffic offences, specifically, red-light offences for crossing that rail crossing. This was launched in January of this year and it marks the first time in over a decade that automatic cameras have been deployed to detect red-light violations. These cameras ensure that motorists who breach traffic signals face meaningful penalties, including fines and penalty points. I have no difficulty with a motorist who seeks to fast track across the crossings facing a penalty for this. I find it very strange that any parliamentarian would seek to defend, like the previous speaker did, a motorist who drove at over 100 km/h and is facing penalty points because they did not see the sign, even if they are their constituents. In any event, this scheme is also being rolled out on Serpentine Road and Sandymount Avenue and on the other side of the River Liffey Irish Rail is also doing it in Sutton and Coolmine. I hope these cameras are installed as a matter of urgency because the evidence shows these measures work. In 2015 there was a pilot at the Luas crossing in the city centre and that reduced red-light breaches by half during a six-month trial. I also want to emphasise the necessity for interoperability. Irish Rail is trying to protect against cars going through the rail crossings but where the Merrion Gates cameras are currently placed means they are perfectly primed to also prevent heavy goods vehicles using the Strand Road when they are not supposed to. It is illegal for heavy goods vehicles to use the Strand Road yet a report from the council in 2021 found that 130 heavy goods vehicles daily were travelling northbound on the Strand Road. It would not take much for those cameras to also be used to detect and criminalise that offence. I ask the Minister of State to look into improving the interoperability of cameras that are already in place so they can detect other road offences.

I thank the Minister of State for facilitating the statements here today in relation to road safety and the use of cameras to deter and detect traffic offences. The number of deaths and serious injuries on our roads is far too high. I am sure the major progress we made as a country over recent decades to reduce the carnage on our roads has been mentioned many times today already. Unfortunately, we have seen a reversal of that in recent years, with 190 deaths in 2025. As a Government we need to work with all stakeholders, including the Garda, the Road Safety Authority and local authorities, to reduce the injuries and deaths on our roads in every way possible. I want to focus on pedestrian safety, which is very important. In total, 41 pedestrians lost their lives on Irish roads last year. Pedestrians are particularly vulnerable road users. I want to focus on the use of cameras at signalised junctions and pedestrian crossings to address the breaking of red lights, which is a very serious offence that can have catastrophic consequences for pedestrians. The benefits of introducing further the roll-out of cameras to reduce the incidence of this offence is very important. I ask the Minister of State to move to introduce cameras as quickly as possible at signalised junctions and pedestrian crossings to act as a deterrent and detect offences of red-light breaking when they take place at crossings. In addition, I ask that we consider our approach in terms of the consistency of pedestrian crossings because we have a myriad of different types of pedestrian crossings. We have controlled crossings, uncontrolled crossings, signalised crossings and zebra crossings. There is a wide range of them. It is important we develop a degree of consistency around our pedestrian crossings and that in itself will help with road safety and pedestrian safety. The final point I wish to make is the importance of having raised tables at pedestrian crossings to deter offences and slow down vehicles. This is critically important. It is an essential safety element. In terms of the core issue of cameras, it is a modern technology we need to be using to greater effect to reduce deaths and injuries on our roads, particularly in the interest of pedestrian safety. That is one of the key tools we can use. We have not used it yet as a country. Other countries are using it. We need to step up to the plate to do that.

I welcome elements of the National Safety Camera Strategy in terms of expanding our safety camera network to 1,900 zones and targeting the high collision black spots. However, we cannot ignore the sheer scale of the violations occurring everywhere in my constituency and elsewhere. We need a lot more cameras and enforcement after it is handed over to TII. Equally, we have to look at the smaller roads and local authority areas also. Let us look at bus lanes, for example. An Garda Síochána issues over 6,000 fixed-charge notices a year to drivers unlawfully using these but there is no real deterrent. A survey by irishcycle.com on Westland Row near Leinster House recorded nearly one car per minute blatantly breaking bus-priority measures. To combat this massive volume, a strategy launching at just one or two pilot locations is completely inadequate and the €60 fine for blocking a bus lane is no real deterrent. It is happening all over and it is not about people turning 50 m from a filter lane; it is selfish and dangerous driving, so we need serious penalty points. Constituents also have a serious problem with the breaking of lights, again, not just on regional roads. The covert traffic monitoring conducted by RTÉ "Prime Time" recorded more than 60 dangerous red-light violations in just an eight-hour window across a tiny handful of junctions. That is death and injury waiting to happen around every single corner. We need the automated safety of these measures but until the strategy delivers widespread cameras everywhere instead of tiny pilots on just regional and national roads, it will be inadequate.

Mia Lily Keogh O'Keeffe was a 16-year-old girl. She was struck by a red Mercedes when she was walking her dog across a pedestrian crossing in Navan this February. The driver fled the scene and it was a horrific accident. Seven other people were killed that same weekend. Mia Lily was a wonderful, well-liked young girl and she had her whole life in front of her. Her life has been stolen from her. The family is suffering profound grief. The mother has said she will never be whole again. This was no accident. The reality is that this was a killing that was caused as a result of a number of different factors. For sure there was the driver involved but the road itself is not up to scratch in terms of protections. This is a really important point that the Minister of State and the Government are missing. Most road safety projects protect people from normal driving behaviour. They do not protect people from abnormal or dangerous driving behaviour. If the Minister of State goes to most countries on the Continent, in small towns and villages every single entry point will have some kind of road traffic measure. It will have a chicane, it will have ramps or it will have some staggered-type lanes which will slow traffic right down. In both cases of normal behaviour and dangerous driving behaviour, people are protected. That is not happening in Ireland and, truth be told, until that happens a lot of the talk that happens in here will be hot air because we are still going to see people being killed on a regular basis. There are many parts of my county where the junctions, roads and bridges are simply not safe to drive through. They are not safe to drive through and they are being allowed to exist in that state by councils and the Government. Until the Government means business in fixing those junctions, narrow roads or bridges we are going to see more deaths happening in the future. The last point here is that we can have all the rules we want in terms of road safety but if we do not have the gardaí to implement them we are on a hiding to nothing. In 2009, there were well over 1,000 road traffic gardaí in this country. Now, there are just over 600. That is a measure of how seriously this Government takes it. The Government needs to increase those numbers if it wants to protect life.

Nobody disputes the need to save lives on our roads. Where there are real black spots, enforcement has its place. Let me be very clear that rural Ireland cannot be treated as an afterthought here. People outside of our small towns and cities rely on their cars every single day to walk, to farm and to bring children to school because public transport simply is not there. This strategy must not become another layer of penalties and surveillance on already stretched rural motorists. Camera locations must be based on real actionable data, clearly justified and signposted, not a cash cow for Government with cameras hidden away to catch people out. Instead of just fining drivers, Government needs to invest in safer roads, fix dangerous junctions, improve surfaces and protect communities. I refer to the painting of the white lines; they are scandalous in my constituency. On most of the roads, you cannot see where the middle of the road is. Even at a junction in Drimoleague, people have been on to me for the last year asking that a square box be painted because people are driving from a minor road onto the main road and they do not see it. Nobody seems to care. We are always asking why there are accidents or more accidents there? The reason is a lack of funding. The road in some parts of west Cork mean you simply have to drive onto the other side of the road to avoid potholes. You cannot drive where you are supposed to drive and that is the cause of accidents. The Government seems not to understand that. For the long-suffering motorists from west Cork on the N71, there is no passing bay on the road to Innishannon, Bandon, Clonakilty into Skibbereen and down to Ballydehob. On the R586, there is no passing bay on the Bandon, Enniskean to Dunmanway road. We need to invest in public transport. We need to invest in the promises of bypasses for Innishannon and Bandon, in the northern southern relief road and the Bantry bypass. These are all promised each year and every time before an election but they are not delivered. It is just simply not good enough. This non-delivery is costing people their lives and the Government needs to sit up, take action and see where the money has been spent and where it needs to be spent. I was in Galway canvassing over the weekend. People are pleading for the ring road in Galway. The traffic is blocked solid there. It is unacceptable. I think another promise will come up again before the by-election. It is not good enough.

Regarding a National Safety Camera Strategy, I have no objections to any of that but what I would like to see is some joined-up thinking. In a lot of areas in County Limerick at the moment, an awful lot of robberies are taking place, and the gardaí under pressure with the numbers they have. What I would like to see rolled out in the camera strategy is number plate recognition, which would help An Garda Síochána catch the vehicles of those involved in robbing people at night, during the day or whenever. It could track them going through all the different towns, villages and byroads they are using and give that data directly to the Garda services. We have a limited number of gardaí in this country, so we need to use technology to help them. We also need it to protect people's lives and people's homes. I would like to see number plate recognition come in. An investigation has been going on for six weeks in my area, trying to locate people who have been in people's backyards and at the back of their houses looking for opportunities to rob them. Yet, we cannot track down these vehicles. We have descriptions of them but An Garda Síochána cannot seem to track them down. If we had number plate recognition cameras on the roads, we would be able to find out the location of these vehicles, where they are coming from, where they are going to, and we would be able to assist the gardaí. We can also use them for the speeding offences - 100%. If we are going to have national safety cameras, we should also have them for the protection of people's properties and lives. That means we have the full data for our Garda services. I was at the budgetary oversight committee yesterday, and I had done a small bit of research myself. The witnesses at the committee - professors and doctors - outlined research and asked about rural Ireland. They listed all the things in rural Ireland that should be improved - speed limits and all the rest of it. I asked them where they from. All three of them were from Dublin. They made comments about the whole country but all their data and research was based in Dublin. There are 32 counties in Ireland. There is more than Dublin in Ireland. When they are doing research, they need to research the whole country.

I welcome the publication and the roll-out of the National Safety Camera Strategy. It is a significant and overdue step in modernising road safety enforcement, and reducing deaths and serious injuries on our roads. Mayo, along with Donegal, has the highest road deaths per capita on 2025 data, so this is important for me and for my constituents. The strategy provides a clear national framework, backed by evidence, for using cameras to tackle speeding, red-light running and dangerous driving behaviours but I also want to ensure it covers rural Ireland, especially blackspots where there are no traffic lights or bus lanes but where there are clearly wide roads where car enthusiasts are engaging in speeding or stunts like doughnuts and things like that. The programme for Government contains a clear commitment to introduce new road safety cameras to automatically detect mobile phone use while driving and drivers not wearing seat belts. These behaviours are among the most dangerous on Irish roads and they contribute daily to collisions, injuries and fatalities. The strategy is strong on speeding and red-light enforcement but it is less committal on expanding cameras to detect phone use and seat-belt offences. We really need clear roadmaps and clear timelines for when these camera enforcements will be extended to those high-risk behaviours. I have also raised before serious local issues in Mayo, specifically around Derrinumera site but also in other sites where large gatherings of car enthusiasts coming from Sligo, Galway and also Mayo are causing disturbances in the same areas over and over again. They are causing safety concerns but are also keeping babies awake at night and residents are having trouble getting to sleep. I have engaged locally with An Garda Síochána and I welcome that engagement. I also engaged with the local authority to discuss the best approach to tackling this issue. Residents are enduring noise disturbance. There is dangerous driving and antisocial behaviour as well as polluting and this deserves action. I commissioned the Oireachtas Library and Research Service to examine international approaches around the world to managing car enthusiast gatherings and different evidence came back from that. One thing that was interesting was that there was no strong evidence that providing a safe place for car meets actually reduces antisocial behaviour, something we float regularly. What it did show, and what most evidence backed, was that vehicle impoundment was the most effective deterrent for dangerous driving and antisocial gatherings. It also highlighted emerging technologies that are being used in the UK that could support enforcement. These are noise detection cameras, which can detect behaviour visually but can also pick up on noise detections such as illegal exhaust modifications or excessive engine revving. These systems could be highly relevant in areas like Derrinumera where noise and modified vehicles are a major part of the problem and I hope Ireland can actively explore the feasibility of a pilot system here similar to the UK. The National Safety Camera Strategy is a strong foundation but we must ensure it evolves to meet the full range of dangerous driving behaviours on our roads. When I look at that area of Derrinumera, these car enthusiasts are very clever. They have spotter cars on either side of the road about 1 km away from where the stunts are happening, so as soon as the gardaí are on their way they notify the main group of people so they can disperse by the time the gardaí get there or they can be lined up neatly in a row, which is not illegal. Cameras in these rural blackspots would really help An Garda Síochána to pick up on that dangerous driving and be able to act on it. I also think we have to get that portal up and running where people can upload their own dash cameras to report dangerous driving. The bus pilot is ongoing but this has to be the next step. My focus here is on safer roads, safer communities and evidence-based enforcement. I welcome the strategy.

I welcome the publication of the National Safety Camera Strategy. I fully support fixed speed cameras, average-speed cameras and bus lane enforcement because, without the infrastructure upgrades we desperately need, our public transport system is stuck. The core bus corridor for Dublin West remains tied up in legal challenges. Until that changes, our buses will continue to crawl through congestion at 12 km/h or 15 km/h, which is roughly the speed of a race walker. That is not a modern transport system. Bus lane enforcement matters. It is an essential short-term deterrent while we wait for long-term infrastructure delivery. If I am honest, my contribution today will probably be defined by welcoming progress while being frustrated at the pace of change. This strategy outlines structures for the management of speeding enforcement, red light cameras, bus lane cameras and the future enforcement of offences such as mobile phone use and seatbelt violations. My question is simple. Why does progress take as long as it does? Road deaths are at their highest level in a decade. Many of the same agencies that will sit on this camera enforcement oversight group already sit on the road safety leadership group. This raises questions as to why co-ordination takes so long. I am not just referring to the camera strategy but changes in respect of road safety in general. How effectively are the stakeholders working together? Ambition matters too. The strategy itself states that average-speed cameras reduce collisions resulting in fatalities or serious injuries by 56% while fixed cameras reduce such collisions by 15%. If we know they work, why move cautiously? We currently have just nine fixed speed cameras and three average-speed cameras nationwide. That is obviously not enough. It is concerning that the strategy seems to talk itself out of expansion because of what it calls "downstream impacts". It suggests that too many offences might overwhelm the courts system. After identifying the benefits of cameras, it states that they should not operate 24 hours a day, that signage is an effective deterrent and that drivers will not know which buses carry the technology. Surely the answer is not to limit enforcement. The answer is to fix the system. Let us be honest about what is happening. A major reason people challenge fixed-charge notices in court is to avoid penalty points. Too often, they succeed because there are weaknesses in how offences are matched to driver numbers on the national driver and vehicle file. According to a Department of Transport review, approximately 1,500 people a year are getting away without any points being recorded. That is the problem we should be urgently solving. If we capture the driver number earlier in the process, ensure penalty points follow convictions properly and make it absolutely clear that offenders will not evade consequences, compliance rates will rise quickly. Prioritising downstream constraints instead of fixing the root problems is not the right approach. Investing in court capacity, judges, clerks, registrars and digital integration is the right approach. I absolutely agree with the strategy that we must digitise documents, share information in real time and free gardaí from unnecessary court attendance. That work does not need a camera strategy to begin. We know this work requires as much urgency as we can possibly bring to it. I know genuinely great work is happening but our road traffic incident numbers are higher than they should be. We must tackle that issue with every tool at our disposal. We are not just here to manage problems; we are here to solve them.

I wish I was here to welcome this with a sense of hope but this is not a strategy. It is a shortlist of options. People are dying on our roads. We are one of the only states in Europe that is going backwards in relation to road safety. In 2025, 21 people tragically died on the roads of Cork. In 2024, 18 died and seven died in 2021. These are horrific figures. Each of these people left behind a distraught family heartbroken with grief. Some families never come back from the heartache of a death like this. At the same time, the Minister of State has come in here today to provide five options. That is not a strategy. It is nothing short of an insult to those families and those who have died. We want to see real action and so do they. They want to see a real strategy that goes further and will help to prevent deaths. They do not want options. They want action. This so-called strategy is 34 pages long and sets out five options. This could have been written at a rate of a page a week over the last two years. That is how long it took to put together and publish this strategy and to come up with five options and no clear actions. While this report was being worked on, 336 people died on our roads. It is heartbreaking. There is another point I want to make. The first people on the scene of these tragedies are our front-line paramedics and ambulance drivers. They are the same people I was proud to stand with on the picket lines yesterday. They are not being valued by this Government. They are going to the scenes of these accidents and seeing the darkest days of people's lives. They are trying everything they can to save people or to show compassion. This Government is not showing compassion for anyone, however. Those workers deserve fair play and fair pay and conditions. I express my solidarity with them. I hope this Government will now step up and sort this out before there are any more strikes next week. From the bottom of my heart and on behalf of all of the people who are affected, I thank all of those people in the emergency services who go out to these accidents. They do unbelievable work. The Government needs to do more.

I welcome the publication of Ireland's first national camera safety strategy. Any measure that reduces speeding and saves lives on our roads is certainly worth considering in a constructive manner. Across the country, thousands of schools and communities will breathe a sigh of relief when they hear this news because far too many parents have their hearts in their mouths sending their children to school every morning. Just yesterday, parents at Cloneyhurke National School contacted me with the shocking results of the school's green schools walkability audit. Some 97% of vehicles were breaking the 50 km/h schooltime limit during drop-off. Some 83% were travelling at over 60 km/h and some were recorded at over 100 km/h. There is still no footpath between the school and the community hall. Children and parents are forced to walk on the road while cars block the hard shoulder. The road surface floods and the times on the signage are wrong. The situation is simply unacceptable. It certainly poses difficulties and risks in terms of children's safety. Cameras will be welcomed by schools like Cloneyhurke National School but let us be honest. Cameras catch offenders but they do not build footpaths, resurface roads or install proper traffic calming measures. That is the glaring contradiction at the heart of this Government's approach. While the Department rolls out a national camera strategy, communities in Offaly have been left waiting years for basic road infrastructure. The Tullamore-Kilbeggan link road on the N52 is a case in point. For over a decade, we were told funding was in the pipeline. TII kept its grip on the money. Only recently, after ongoing pressure and the issue being raised by me in the Chamber many times, it has finally received approval and has been placed on the national development plan. Road safety cannot be delivered by means of enforcement alone. We need cameras, but we also need concrete and proper infrastructure, particularly in the vicinity of schools where, in many cases, there are no footpaths.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this matter. I want to bring it down to what matters for north Dublin. The strategy is listed in the programme for Government. It sits at the centre of the road safety plan. It is fundamental and will protect lives. It is about the drivers, cyclists, pedestrians and families who have lost loved ones in the constituency I represent and nationally. In recent months, Dublin Bay North has seen arson attack after arson attack. I would love for some of the CCTV footage to be used by Dublin City Council and gardaí to protect the amenities that have been attacked. We fought for them. I would also welcome CCTV cameras outside schools. They help to protect children, but it is also about protecting the amenities for children. Two nights ago, a playground was attacked. Why are people attacking the communities? It makes no sense. In Coolock, we fought for a camera to be installed. In the Howth area, we got one installed. This is all in the past 12 months. In St. Anne’s Park, public toilets were put in for young girls. Within two days, they were burnt down. That is inexcusable. CCTV, in conjunction with the national strategy, will be of benefit. When I have written about having cameras installed around clothes banks or areas where there is heavy traffic and risk to pedestrians, the GDPR is used as an excuse. I emailed about this in relation to CCTV and the Garda and received a reply to say that the GDPR does not prohibit the use of CCTV. I welcome the work that is being done. My father was a traffic policeman for 35 years. I spoke to him about how it will help. He does respect that. Gardaí need to be given the proper resources to correctly implement it. That is why it matters and gives us the framework for enforcement by gardaí in the context of people who run red lights, the misuse of bus lanes and, crucially, public safety. Nobody wants a surveillance state. We do not want a Big Brother Ireland, but we do want to stop children’s playgrounds in north Dublin being burnt down. We want to stop vans driving to Dollymount beach - a nature reserve - at 2 a.m. and dumping refuse. We also want to protect drivers and stop people recklessly driving on the roads while they are on their phones. I do welcome that. We deserve better safety and better deterrence. I welcome the moves in that regard. I will continue to push constructively and to work with the Minister of State.

I thank the Deputies for their contributions and for their very useful comments during this debate on the National Safety Camera Strategy and the important topic of road safety more generally. Road safety is a matter which affects all of us, and every member of the public is entitled to feel safe on our roads. Far too many families and communities across the country continue to be affected by the devastating impact of road traffic collisions. I am sure we can all agree that road safety is an area where we all want to see improvements and most importantly a significant reduction in the number of deaths and serious injuries on our roads. In that regard, it is important that we see a return to the progress of previous years and that there is a reduction in the number of fatalities and serious injuries on our roads. I would like to assure the Dáil that this Government remains committed to delivering the Road Safety Strategy 2021-2030, with the ultimate goal of halving the number of fatalities and serious injuries on our roads by 2030. Meeting this ambitious goal will take us towards achieving Vision Zero by 2050. My colleague the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, provided an update on the phase 2 action plan under the road safety strategy for the period 2025 to 2017, which was published by the Department of Transport in July of last year. This action plan comprises 12 primary transformative actions and 77 support actions. I welcome the progress that has been made too date, in particular the publication of the National Safety Camera Strategy. Road safety cameras are intended to be, first and foremost, a tool to support safety, prevention and behavioural change across the road network. The enhanced use of cameras across Ireland will encourage safer driving practices, reduce the number of collisions and protect road users by promoting compliance with road traffic laws. Enforcement measures only become necessary in circumstances where individuals fail to exercise due care and responsibility while driving. In this context, camera enforcement acts as an important safeguard to deter dangerous behaviours and reinforce a culture of road safety for all. This is an ambitious action plan, but we need to be ambitious in order to reverse the upward trend in fatalities and serious injuries. Delivering the action plan is a collaborative effort involving my Department, together with An Garda Síochána, the Department of Transport, the Road Safety Authority, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, National Transport Authority, the Courts Service, Medical Bureau of Road Safety, the Health and Safety Authority and the local authorities. Deputies will note that there are many experts across a range of partners collaborating to take action and deliver positive road safety outcomes. Road safety is a priority for the Garda Commissioner. An Garda Síochána is committed to working with all road safety stakeholders to ensure that the number of fatalities and serious injuries on our roads is reduced. The Minister of State, Deputy Canney, reminded us of the four main causes of fatalities on our roads that have been consistent over time, namely speeding, distraction, not wearing a seat belt and intoxicated driving. Tackling these dangerous behaviours can be addressed through road safety education, public awareness campaigns and the enforcement of road traffic laws. Over the recent May bank holiday weekend, An Garda Síochána carried out an extensive roads policing operation, the results of which were quite emphatic. Almost 4,000 drivers were detected for speeding during the operation. A total of 165 were arrested for driving under the influence of an intoxicant and 300 were detected for holding a mobile phone or not wearing a seat belt. These trends cannot and must not continue. Everyone who gets behind the wheel of a car or who is a passenger in a car has a role to play in ensuring that they or those who are driving behave in a safe manner. Such a change in current behavioural trends would have a far greater long-term positive impact in affecting road safety if adopted by all of those who use the roads. Behaviours are key to creating safer roads across Ireland. We all have a role to play where road safety is concerned. Ongoing enforcement is a very important aspect of the road safety strategy. In the modern world, it is important that we adopt a multifaceted approach to road safety enforcement. At the end of March, there were 695 gardaí assigned to the roads policing unit. Of course, all gardaí engage in the enforcement of roads policing as part of their duties. In fact, the majority of drug driving and drink driving checks are carried out by regular garda members. Additional speed cameras and enhanced data sharing are key components of this multifaceted approach to road traffic law enforcement. As highlighted by the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, camera enforcement across the road network has been increasing since 2024. An Garda Síochána, with the assistance of TIl and local authorities, has deployed nine new static safety cameras across the road network as well as three new average speed cameras. Effective detection and enforcement of road traffic offences through the use of safety cameras will promote better and safer driver behaviour, which will help to reduce the number of fatalities and serious injuries on our roads. In addition, An Garda Síochána, through the mobile safety camera programme, delivered under contract by GoSafe, provides 9,000 hours of monitoring on our roads each month. This has increased from 7,500 hours in 2024. On 1 January last, An Garda Síochána introduced 390 new safety camera zones, including 55 community request safety camera zones, bringing the total to 1,901 safety camera zones nationwide. Increased data sharing is also having a positive impact on road safety. Every front-line Garda member now has a mobility device, which is essentially a mobile phone that allows them to access a number of specialised Garda apps at the roadside. These include the ability to issue a fixed charge notice, to check a vehicle's insurance status, if a vehicle is taxed and whether a driver is disqualified. These tasks can now be done within moments, without the need to return to the station making much better use of their time. The statistics show that it is being widely and extensively used by gardaí across the country as part of roads policing. An Garda Síochána figures show that members of the force checked approximately 3.7 million vehicles via their mobile devices over the last full year. That is more than 10,000 vehicles per day. This year, members of An Garda Síochána had, on average, made inquiries in respect of approximately 360,000 vehicles per month to the end of March. This information helps to enhance road safety. It also provides An Garda Síochána with more comprehensive insight into any offences a driver may have committed, thereby making it more difficult for drivers who act illegally on Irish roads to evade detection. The National Safety Camera Strategy sets out a new approach to the operation of safety cameras in Ireland. Up to now, the deployment of safety cameras across the road network has been the primary responsibility of An Garda Síochána. Under the strategy, exclusive responsibility for the installation and maintenance of speed cameras will transition away from An Garda Síochána. A key strength of the new approach, as outlined in the strategy, is that it will ensure greater collaboration between road safety stakeholders, including An Garda Síochána, TII and the NTA, and build on well-established road safety expertise and relationships. By partnering with TII and the NTA, An Garda Síochána will be able to focus its efforts on core policing, including enforcement activities, reducing time spent on the management of the road camera systems. These tasks are non-core policing work. Critically, the strategy has been developed to be scaleable, thereby allowing the introduction of camera-based enforcement of additional road traffic offences in future, such as mobile phone usage and people not wearing seat belts. This will further enhance An Garda Síochána's enforcement capability in relation to deadly behaviours on our roads. As outlined by the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, the camera enforcement oversight group, which will be delivery focused, will be responsible for implementing the national safety camera strategy. Senior leaders from An Garda Síochána will work alongside leaders of the NTA, TII, the Road Safety Authority, the Courts Service and our local authorities. I am confident that this collaborative approach is the best approach to implementing the safety strategy, including a clear focus on the importance of enforcement of road traffic law. However, lasting progress cannot be made through enforcement alone. Success will require a strong and collaborative collective commitment from all road users to act responsibly, comply with road traffic laws and prioritise safety in every journey. Only through a shared responsibility approach can we create safe roads for everyone. I thank all the Deputies who made contributions to the debate.