Road Safety
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-30
============================================================

Darragh O'Brien (FF), Dublin Fingal East

Undoubtedly, we have seen an increase over the last number of years from a lower base. When you compare Ireland to the rest of Europe, the statistics - this is not to mean the road fatalities themselves - compare favourably and we are still in the upper quartile in relation to prevention of road deaths and the number of road deaths. Again, I say this on the basis that I do not like talking about numbers because there are people behind them.
On safety cameras, 390 new safety camera zones became operational from 1 January this year. This brings the total number of safety cameras nationwide to 1,901. The Deputy raised a point and I would say to him that enforcement is unquestionably critical. It is something that my Department discusses with the Department of justice. I continue to engage with the Minister, Deputy Jim O'Callaghan. We have the road traffic (amendment) Bill coming in later this year. Driver behaviour is critical, though, and that is why education is important. We all see it, we all drive around the country and see some outrageous driver behaviour. It is unacceptable, by the way, for anyone in this day and age to get into a car when they have had alcohol.

---

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/dail/2026-04-30/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-30