National Vehicle and Driver File, Road Traffic and Roads Bill 2026: Second Stage
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-17
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Roderic O'Gorman (GP), Dublin West

I will say at the outset that it is good we finally have this Bill before the House. We have been waiting for it for a while now. A number of its provisions represent real common-sense reforms. They look at the modernisation of the national vehicle and driver file, the removal of outdated paper motor tax discs, improvements to collision data sharing, which I will speak more about, and measures designed to strengthen road safety enforcement and planning. These are all positive, but we have to understand this Bill is coming forward in the context of wider road safety issues and the real carnage that is taking place on our roads at the moment. There were 190 people killed on our roads last year and, according to An Garda Síochána, 134 already killed in 2026. Many of these deaths are preventable but all destroy families. Everything we do in this Bill and everything we do in the Oireachtas transport committee has to be with a view to getting us closer to the objective of Vision Zero, which is eliminating deaths and serious injuries on our roads. The Green Party and I have continually highlighted the need for stronger and more focused road safety responses, including better enforcement, safer road design and improved collision analysis. I might come back to enforcement at the end.
One of the strongest elements in the Bill the Minister of State has brought forward today is the provision allowing local authorities to access and process collision data for road safety purposes. For too long, local authorities have been restricted in their ability to analyse collision patterns and particularly to identify dangerous locations in their road network. The ability to access this information will enable evidence-based interventions, better targeting of safety investments and earlier identification of high-risk locations. At the moment, when the RSA and An Garda Síochána go through their analysis of collisions in an area, let us say in my home area, they might say there is a bad bend or junction in Blanchardstown and there have been six crashes there over the past three years, but because of GDPR right now they cannot convey that information to the local authority, Fingal County Council. That is going to be resolved in this Bill and it is something I welcome.
While the Bill creates the legal basis to share collision data, it does not require systematic collision analysis, a publication of findings or safety action plans arising from that data. As this Bill goes through, I hope the Minister of State will look at the data sharing being brought through, which is valuable, being supplemented with regular reporting on collision hot spots, publication of anonymised datasets, and the integration with the Vision Zero targets and commitments that identified high-risk locations receiving funding priority. There is no point in Fingal being able to say, "Yes, there is a really dangerous bend in Blanchardstown", if it does not have the money to actually do something about it. We have to have joined-up thinking here. We are solving one problem here but more has to flow from that.
The Green Party has been a consistent supporter of more appropriate speed limits because we know, and we have heard this at the transport committee from experts who have come in, that speed remains one of the principal factors determining both collision risk and collision severity. This Bill allows local authorities and Transport Infrastructure Ireland to set 60 km/h limits on certain roads in built-up areas and provides additional flexibility regarding national roads. There is a potential risk that the legislation as it is currently drafted could be interpreted as creating opportunities for higher speeds in urbanised areas at a time when national policy is and should be moving us towards lower speeds and a safe systems approach. Will the Minister of State give an assurance that these amendments will not undermine the intent of the 30 km built-up area policy and the wider speed review? If that assurance cannot be given, I will struggle to support this Bill, notwithstanding the other positive elements I see within it.
The abolition of the paper motor tax disc is overdue and is something I welcome. As we know, the Garda is now relying on automatic number plate recognition systems and access to digital databases. The paper disc requirement does not serve any meaningful enforcement purpose any more and removing unnecessary bureaucracy while retaining enforcement capacity is good public administration. The expansion of the level of information available through the check my vehicle service for consumer protection is a positive step. Providing greater information on things like tax status, roadworthiness certification and vehicle characteristics will assist buyers in the second-hand market and may help combat vehicle fraud and cloning. However, I should emphasise the data protection safeguards must remain robust and GDPR compliance must be fully maintained as the database functions expand.
Beyond the items currently in the Bill, I argue that the Government should move more quickly on additional road safety measures. I will highlight a few of these. The implementation of the national safety camera strategy took a long time to be published. It is now published but when we asked the NTA and others about it at the transport committee, there was a real lack of clarity on when we were going to see outputs. I think only one meeting of the oversight body has taken place so far - maybe it is two at this stage - but how are we going to see this delivered? How are we going to see in our local authorities those red light cameras that would provide such benefit in catching motorists who are breaking red lights and are dangerous to cyclists, pedestrians and other motorists? Camera enforcement of mobile phone and seat belt offences, stronger road safety governance and the reform of the RSA have also been spoken about before. No doubt, we will come back to our difference of opinion on that again. It is also about improving regulation of dangerous vehicle use, including scramblers and high-powered e-scooters.
The Bill to date contains a range of practical reforms that will modernise transport administration and strengthen aspects of road safety policy, but we should also recognise that legislation of this kind must form part of a wider commitment to Vision Zero. Every death and serious injury on our roads is preventable. I passionately believe these deaths are preventable. The objective has to be not just the removal of outdated, bureaucratic processes or the simplification and opening up of databases but actually saving lives. That is what we have to be about here. In this regard, there is so much more to do.
The issue of enforcement is not directly within the Minister of State's remit but I am sure he has seen the discussion about the number of gardaí available for roads policing. This has been in the media in the past week. Commissioner Kelly came into the transport committee in the last sitting at the end of July and spoke about his position on roads policing. There are 660 gardaí assigned to roads policing right now. The Commissioner emphasised it is the largest stand-alone unit within An Garda Síochána but it is also significantly smaller than it was - 40% smaller than it was 15 years ago. We have a new Commissioner, whom I asked if growing the number of gardaí in roads policing was one of his objectives, to which he said it was not. In fairness to him, he made the point he believes there could be more efficiencies and more done among the 660. However, I want to put it on record that I do not believe that 660 gardaí on roads policing is enough, not when we had 190 people dead on our roads last year and 134 dead this year.
In particular, there were two pieces of agreement that every organisation that came before the transport committee in the past six months on the topic of road safety outlined to us. The first was that the RSA was not fit for purpose, which we have spoken about before. The second was that enforcement was the key, but we are not seeing adequate enforcement. I understand in the Minister of State's role of overseeing road safety that he has regular engagement with his own senior Minister and the Minister for justice. I ask that he take the message of enforcement back.
I welcome what the Commissioner said in terms of his approach to road safety on a general basis, but I do not believe we have enough gardaí focused on this crucial part of their role.
I call on the Minister of State to be an advocate to the Department of justice to get more gardaí on our roads saving lives.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-17