Road Safety: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-09-30 ============================================================ Imelda Goldsboro (FF), Nominated by the Taoiseach I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House this afternoon. Road safety is a key priority for Fianna Fáil. Improving road safety requires the right legislation, effective policies, strong enforcement, close co-operation between agencies and authorities and greater public awareness of our shared responsibility as road users. Over a period of just over two decades there had been a significant drop in deaths on our roads from 472 road deaths in Ireland in 1997 to 137 in 2021. This remarkable transformation was achieved against the backdrop of significant increases in the number of vehicles on our roads. However, it is alarming to see a reversal in this trend in recent years. We have witnessed a marked rise in road fatalities, which has been a serious source of concern to all of us. In south Tipperary, we have seen a number of tragedies on our roads. As late as Monday morning, we heard Michael English speaking about the death of his daughter, the late Bronagh English. Bronagh's mum is Danielle English and her grandfather is Dr. Donie Ormonde, a former Member of the Seanad. A number of their ideas were highlighted, including road markings and road signage that would create awareness, and that they hope will help to prevent the same thing from happening to others in future. Bronagh, who passed away just over a year ago, was a vibrant young lady. We send our sincere sympathies to her family and to her school associates in Rockwell College. We have had a number of young people die on our roads, including David Lahart and Sonny Tobin, just to name two. These deaths have had a great impact on these people's families and friends. They are left behind to deal with the horrific consequences. The loss of these young people is very raw and sore for these families. Our approach is about saving lives and preventing serious injuries for all of those who use our roads. The starting point is recognising that road deaths or serious injuries should not be the price to be paid for mobility. The approach is multifaceted. It includes stronger laws, better data, smarter technology, tougher enforcement, safer speeds, safer road design and focused education. We have the National Vehicle and Driver File, Road Traffic and Roads Bill 2026, which will allow local authorities to resume processing collision data, along with a number of other provisions to address road safety concerns. The next road traffic and roads Bill is under development. It will advance graduated speeding penalties and camera enforcement of mobile phone and seat belt offences. We are progressing the delivery of the speed limit review. We are also addressing repeated permit renewals. New regulations will come into effect this November to tackle the long-standing issue of multiple learner permit renewals and to encourage progression through the driver licensing system. We are increasing enforcement and using technology to deliver better road safety outcomes. The national safety strategy provides a framework for the wider deployment of cameras targeting speeding, red light running and bus lane infringements, with scope to support enforcement targeting other offences in future. We are making roads safer by design. This year, €14 million has been allocated under the low-cost safety improvement scheme for targeted engineering measures at identified risk locations. We are investing in behavioural change. The Road Safety Authority, RSA, has ring-fenced €18 million this year for road safety awareness and education campaigns aimed at all road users, including vulnerable road users. Road safety is not simply a matter of transport policy. It is a matter of life and death, of families and of communities, and of the fundamental right of every person to travel safely on our roads. Recent fatal collisions have again brought home in the most devastating way the human cost of failures in road safety. Behind every statistic is a person, and behind every fatality are family members whose lives have been changed forever. Understandably, there is public anger and frustration when people see dangerous driving, speeding, uninsured or unlicensed drivers or other serious breaches of road traffic law. They question whether our enforcement system is keeping pace. As legislators, we have a responsibility to respond. Improving road safety requires the right legislation, effective policies, strong enforcement, close co-operation between agencies and authorities and greater public awareness of our shared responsibility as road users. This is why I welcome the Government's National Vehicle and Driver File, Road Traffic and Roads Bill 2026. This is not simply an administrative or technical Bill. It is an important modernisation and road safety measure, designed to ensure that the laws governing vehicle and driver information, compliance and enforcement are modern, clear and fit for purpose. We must also be prepared to ask difficult questions about enforcement. Do our gardaí have the information they need when they need it? Are the legal powers sufficiently clear? Are penalty and compliance systems actually delivering the deterrent we expect of them? The Government has already acknowledged that road safety requires legislation, effective enforcement and co-operation between the Departments of transport and justice, An Garda Síochána, the RSA and other agencies. At the same time, greater access to information must come with proper safeguards. We must see dangerous drivers being detected. We must see effective enforcement of our traffic laws. We must have confidence that agencies of the State are able to share necessary information lawfully and efficiently to make our roads safer. Road safety legislation is only as effective as our ability to enforce it. As a Government Senator, therefore, I support this Bill and the wider Government programme of road safety reform, but I believe we must continue to challenge ourselves. Where there are gaps in enforcement, we must close them. Where legislation is unclear, we must strengthen it. Where information can save lives, we must use it responsibly. Where dangerous behaviour is putting lives at risk, we must act decisively. As we are approaching winter, I urge pedestrians, joggers and cyclists to please think of the drivers and make sure to wear hi-vis jackets and slow down. We cannot see people in dark clothes. It is most important to reduce the number of accidents to be aware. We need to let that message go out that people need to wear the hi-vis vests so that we can see them. Go raibh míle maith agat. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-09-30/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-09-30