Road Safety
Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-21
============================================================

Gareth Scahill (FG), Nominated by the Taoiseach

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber once again. The Commencement matter I present today is in regard to the safe routes to school scheme and it follows discussions with Fine Gael councillors in Roscommon: Councillors Liam Callaghan, Valerie Duffy, Ruth Conboy and Dominick Connolly, about their frustration at the introduction of safety schemes around their national schools throughout County Roscommon. The safe routes to school scheme is one of the most positive and forward-thinking initiatives we have seen in recent years. It was developed in 2020 with a simple but powerful goal - to make it safer and easier for children across Ireland to get to school. In many ways it has delivered, where it has delivered. The scheme aims to improve safety at school gates, upgrade walking and cycling routes and encourage active travel among students throughout the country. We are now seeing tangible improvements in that area, with wider footpaths and safer crossings. We have all seen the colourful school zones and traffic calming measures that make a real difference to families.
Since the scheme was introduced in 2021, 526 schools are at various stages of either completion, design or development towards benefiting from this programme.
Investment in the scheme amounts to around €50 million.
We cannot ignore the bigger picture. When the scheme opened initially 932 schools applied, accounting for about 20% of the eligible primary schools. That tells us that this is an important scheme that is in very high demand. A safety scheme outside schools is urgent. There are currently no plans, as far as I know, to reopen the scheme until the remaining 406 schools from the original cohort have been included. At the current pace, and factoring in inflation, significantly more than €50 million will be invested in this initiative, given that projects outside schools cost €200,000 and more. Meanwhile, countless other schools, many in desperate need of basic safety measures, are left waiting, not just for delivery but even for the opportunity to apply to the programme.
We have to ask ourselves if there is a more effective way to protect our children. While the full suite of interventions is welcome - the bells and whistles of colourful pencils sticking up outside the school and anti-grip speed bumps - we are facing ongoing and very real road safety concerns and challenges. Speed remains a major factor in collisions. Rural roads in particular pose a serious risk, with many schools located along high-speed routes where children are most vulnerable.
Perhaps it is time to rethink our approach to this issue. Instead of focusing solely on comprehensive high-cost upgrades for a limited number of schools, should we not also prioritise basic, life-saving interventions for all schools? Measures such as speed reduction zones, speed ramps, flashing warning lights and speed indicator signs can be delivered for around €50,000 per school. These are proven, practical solutions that can significantly reduce risk. For the cost of one major project, we could introduce essential safety measures at multiple schools. Surely the priority must be ensuring that every child in every school has at least a baseline level of protection when they arrive at the school gate.
I know I am short on time. Essentially, for the cost of one of these schemes, we could see interventions and safety measures introduced at multiple schools. A basic speed bump costs about €5,000, so we are looking at €10,000 for one on each approach, and a few thousand more to erect signs at either side of each school. That would ensure that all schools benefit from the core elements of the safe routes to school scheme, giving students safe access to their schools.

---

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/2026-04-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:50+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-21