Road Safety: Motion
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-17
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Mark Duffy (FG), Labour Panel

I thank the Ministers of State, Deputy Buttimer and Deputy Canney, for being here for such an important topic. I thank my Fine Gael colleagues and colleagues across all parties for supporting this motion. As has been outlined, we have a crisis in road safety. We have heard some brilliant and heartfelt contributions of ideas to help make our roadways, footpaths and cycle lanes safer for all road users. Today's announcement of funding and investment will go some way towards low-cost safety measures in communities which can improve safety. We would like to see drastic improvements in front-loading investment and prioritising low-cost safety measures in communities. As has been mentioned, perhaps there can be more devolved decision-making around safety improvements in towns and communities. We have engineers in local authorities on the ground and representatives in communities who understand in a pronounced way the challenges in every neighbourhood. Connecting the funding and interventions closer together will make a big difference in turning around projects at much greater speed. We are in an age where there are so many different challenges in road safety because of more contemporary travel modes. We spoke at length about e-scooters and scramblers. We welcome the Bills that are coming in but it also requires the enforcement of them and the vigilance of every road user to protect the most vulnerable, whether schoolchildren, wheelchair users, cyclists, pedestrians, motorists, vulnerable road users like motorcyclists, and larger vehicles. Every single one of us has a role to play as public representatives and leaders in our communities along with every citizen. They have to take a certain amount of responsibility and autonomy and vigilance. We as policymakers can be constructive.
The ideas proposed this evening can be very constructive in terms of making this a safer country for us all to live in and making the roadway and byways safer for us all to use, because each life lost is one too many. We need to see a re-emphasis on road safety. I welcome all of the contributions this evening and we all look forward to working with the Minister of State and all of the State agencies and local authorities alike to make sure we have a drastic improvement in safety outcomes for all road users.

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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