Road Safety: Statements
Seanad Éireann — 2026-09-30
============================================================

Cathal Byrne (FG), Cultural and Educational Panel

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber. I will raise three issues. First, at a local level in my home county of Wexford, there are three dangerous crossroads. Unfortunately, over the years, they have been the locations of many fatalities and serious crashes causing devastating, long-lasting harm to people. They are at Kyle Cross on the N11 outside Oilgate, Larkin's Cross on the N25, which is the road that runs from New Ross to Wexford town, and Clohamon Cross on the N80, which runs from Bunclody to Enniscorthy. The Minister of State will be aware that I have previously highlighted these areas. Studies of and public consultations about them are under way at the moment, but I ask that the funding that comes out of those reviews be provided swiftly.
Second, I will speak for a moment about the urgent need for the Oilgate to Rosslare motorway to be progressed. The latest statistics show that seven in ten road traffic collisions occur on rural roads, and extending that motorway - it is expected a planning application will be lodged next year - would be a mechanism to reduce fatalities in Wexford.
Finally, I will raise the issue of individuals who are driving on our roads after being disqualified. At the moment, section 38 of the Road Traffic Act provides they will be subject to a maximum of six months' imprisonment or a fine of €5,000. That needs to be reviewed and strengthened. Individuals who are driving while disqualified should be subjected to far greater penalties.

---

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