An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-17
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Mark Duffy (FG), Labour Panel

This afternoon, I would like to raise the topic of road safety especially for the most vulnerable road users and the most vulnerable people in our society, namely, children. The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport recently highlighted the Love 30 campaign, which proposes reducing speed limits to 30 km/h in certain neighbourhoods. The safe routes to school is a very positive model that has seen very beneficial interventions outside and close to schools to connect children, students and teachers from their residences to their schools. Last week on the floor of the House, I highlighted a school, which I had previously raised as a councillor in Mayo. Culleens National School is looking for basic interventions. A protest was held outside the school where students animatedly campaigned for a reduction in the speed limit there and the provision of a small path to connect with an existing path. When the State intervenes and builds a new school like the Culleens National School, there needs to be joined-up thinking in terms of investment from the school as well as the local authority, supported by the Department of Transport, to make sure that it is a safe school and is connected and walkable for residents who are living on the Killala Road. The safe routes to school model is positive but we often see more money spent on consultant after consultant and report after report when basic interventions like connecting a footpath to an existing path to a school and pedestrian safety measures can do the trick.
We have well-educated and very competent engineers in local authorities around the country and sometimes we overcomplicate the process in delivering projects like this. I lend my support on the floor of the House this afternoon to Culleens National School, the teacher Deirdre O'Loughlin, and all the teachers and students. More broadly, we need to look at how we make schools safe and how we invest in basic services around school infrastructure for the safety of children in a pragmatic and fast way that can deliver, as opposed to paying consultant after consultant without any change on the ground.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:38+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-17