Ceisteanna ó na Comhaltaí Eile - Other Members’ Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-16
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue in his evidence-based, researched and informed way. Clearly, all of our thoughts are with the victims and the families of all of those who have lost their lives on our roads across the country in recent times. My understanding is that to date, we have had 134 fatalities this year, 13 more than for the same period last year. This is a very serious issue. The nature of the accidents and fatalities on our roads is also changing. The manner in which certain events are happening on our roads is not static, such as people driving the wrong way down a motorway.
The Deputy is absolutely correct. We have to tackle this through a combination of additional gardaí and personnel but also far greater use of technology to deal with road safety. My understanding is that the Garda is taking this particularly seriously. It has increased capacity through the roll-out of apps on mobile devices and the deployment of high-performance unmarked cars, motorbikes, lorry tractor cabs and so on. On 1 January of this year, An Garda Síochána introduced 390 new safety camera zones, including 55 community request safety cameras zones, bringing the total to 1,900 nationwide.
The Government recognises the significant potential of connected and autonomous vehicles and intelligent transport systems, ITS, technologies to improve road safety outcomes. We are taking practical steps to create the legislative, regulatory and digital foundations needed to support the safe deployment of connected and automated mobility and ITS technologies. The Government will continue to support the deployment of co-operative intelligent transport systems, which enable vehicles, infrastructure and traffic management systems to exchange critical safety information in real time.
The Deputy is correct. All of these technologies can improve road safety by providing advance warning of hazards and incidents, improving protection for vulnerable road users, supporting more effective traffic management and enhancing vehicle awareness of road and traffic conditions.
In March, the Government used a legislative framework, a statutory instrument, to facilitate the deployment of level 2 connected and automated vehicle technologies. It is an important milestone in preparing Ireland for the safe introduction of increasingly advanced vehicle automation technologies. On 26 June, the Minister signed the declaration of intent on automated vehicles, alongside 17 other EU member states, on testing and deployment. We are looking at rolling this out in the context of Europe-wide development. As I said recently in public, I believe that not everyone fully gets the degree to which technology can substantially change how we do road safety in this country.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-16