Road Traffic Accidents
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-26
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Jennifer Whitmore (SD), Wicklow

There is no panacea to this. There are many issues involved, and the Minister is right that driver behaviour is one of them. However, the reality is that, as we have seen, some driver behaviour is very poor and unless there is enforcement and a fear of being caught for this behaviour on the road, it will continue. While there a lot of actions are needed, the absolute priority here is enforcement and the Minister of State barely mentioned enforcement in his response.
We need to ensure we have sufficient Garda numbers in the roads policing unit. In recent years, we have seen a 40% reduction in the roads policing unit. What conversations has the Minister of State had with the Minister for justice, Deputy O'Callaghan, on dealing with that issue? That is the crux of the matter. Until we get enforcement right, we will continue to see increases in the number of tragic deaths on our roads.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:42+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-26