National Vehicle and Driver File, Road Traffic and Roads Bill 2026: Second Stage
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-17
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Peadar Tóibín (AON), Meath West

Before I start, I want to mention two young people who have been killed on the roads in Meath in the past few months. Mia Lily Keogh O'Keeffe was a wonderful young girl. In her short life, she brought enormous happiness and love to her friends and family. She was gifted, creative and engaging with all who knew her. Her life was stolen from her. She was struck while walking her dog on a pedestrian crossing in Navan in February. The driver fled the scene. TJ McDonnell, from Bohermeen, County Meath, was killed just a few weeks ago. TJ was training for a cycling event with a friend when he was hit by a van. Here too, the driver fled the scene. I will not say anything more about the circumstances of these accidents as the drivers are before the court but TJ was a young man. In his short life, he had done so much. He touched the lives of so many people for the better. In both cases, their families, friends and communities had been devastated. The Minister of State knows this but a parent burying a child is a very difficult thing. In both cases, those collisions should not have happened. Just two days ago, there was a fatal collision on the M4 at Enfield, where a man in his 30s was killed. Will the Minister of State consider a minimum sentence for those involved in hit and runs? Sometimes this can be done to evade drink or drugs being detected in the system. I believe the penalty should be increased so that there is no incentive to do that. Leaving a person dying on the side of a road without treatment is despicable and can also directly result in death.
There have been 134 deaths so far this year on our roads and it is only September. In each of those cases, families are devastated. Road deaths are nearly a fifth higher at this point in 2026 than at the same period last year. Some experts are saying that we are on course to surpass the 2010 high of 212 road deaths. Statistics are saying that a disproportionate number of young male drivers are involved in road collisions, especially on rural roads. Young men in their 20s from Mayo and Donegal are disproportionately represented.
This is important because it also shows that a difficulty with the quality of the roads in certain parts of the country is leading to these deaths. It gives me no pleasure to say that under this Government, road death figures are getting worse. We are an outlier in European terms because in most of Europe, road deaths are falling. The alarming trend whereby 27% of road deaths are among young people between the ages of 16 and 25 is shocking.
It is important to remind people that road safety is first and foremost a personal responsibility. Each one of us is directly responsible for his or her behaviour on the roads and it is important that people take that responsibility in hand and drive in a safe and controlled manner. However, the truth is that roads are getting more dangerous and it is not by accident that this is happening.
Many towns and villages have little or no traffic protections. I can think of a dozen towns and villages in my county where cars and trucks rattle through at speed on a daily basis. In some communities, those protections are only useful for those who are already obeying the rules of the road. This is important. We need road protections to protect people, especially pedestrians, from others who are not obeying the rules of the road, including people who are driving too fast or under the influence. Many towns and villages in Europe have traffic calming measures at the entrance of every single street or road entering that town or village. People are forced to slow down because of ramps or chicanes. That should be a default standard. Every town and village should have a default chicane or ramp at its entrance to forcibly slow down cars coming into it.
Another important point is the absence of enforcement. When Mia Lily Keogh O’Keeffe was born there were 1,046 road traffic gardaí on our roads. When she was killed there were 638 road traffic gardaí on the roads. That action alone is the main reason people are being killed in higher numbers on the roads. All the Bills the Minister of State or anybody else brings through the House are not worth a hill beans if there is not the gardaí to enforce them.
I remember in the noughties people would think twice about drinking and driving because there was a reasonable chance of a garda stopping them on the roads. That behaviour changed radically because people knew there was no reasonable chance of their being stopped. Without enforcement, people's behaviour changes for the worse. They break the rules of the road and people get killed. That 40% collapse in the number of gardaí is the most important issue. If it is not addressed, all the Government's Bills will be meaningless. That is a fact.
I have been breathalysed twice in the last 30 years. On both occasions, it occurred at 10.30 a.m. on a Monday. I know there are some people who will be at weddings and late night events on a Sunday night, etc., but a very small cohort is still over the limit at 10.30 a.m. compared with people travelling home late at night on a Friday or Saturday. It is easier to staff road checks at 10.30 on a Monday than it is in the evening but it is less effective and less useful for saving lives.
On enforcement, the figures are incredible. Even when gardaí catch people the courts system is failing us. There has been a sevenfold increase in speeding prosecutions in the nearest District Court to me, Trim, but two thirds of those did not proceed. That is incredible. I invite the Minister of State to guess how many people on the roads are not insured. There are 211,000 people driving on the roads today who are not insured or registered. When the Minister of State drives home to Galway today he is likely to pass around 200 drivers coming in the other direction who are not insured or registered. That is incredible.
Then there is the situation whereby 20% of people put off the roads do not have a driving licence. In 2024, 8,200 individuals who were to receive penalty points did not even have a licence and 23,000 people who were disqualified never gave up their licence. We are talking about the wild west in terms of people ignoring the rules of the road and the laws. Unless we join the dots between enforcement, deterrence and behavioural change, we will never fix the end result, namely, deaths on our roads. We have light-touch enforcement in this country.
I have a question which I ask the Minister of State to address in his response. He contacted the RSA in the week after the M9 collision to convey his unhappiness with the organisation due to its absence in the aftermath of that accident. A spokesperson for the RSA said it was not in a position to give any information to people about how to deal with people driving down the wrong side of the road. The Government's plan was to split the RSA but it has done a U-turn on that. Why is that the case?
Another issue I have banged on about for years in this Chamber is that gardaí do not have the ability to pursue e-scooters, scramblers and people driving down the wrong side of the road. When I first raised this it was like playing handball against a haystack because no matter how many times I raised it, nothing happened on the Government side. After the M9 incident, the Government jumped into some level of action but, believe it or not, there will be just six gardaí trained in pursuit training by the end of this year. If gardaí are unable to pursue people who are breaking the law, we will not be able to enforce the law. If there is one thing I would like the Minister of State to take home today, it is enforcement. However, to be honest, I believe there will be fewer than 600 people policing our roads in five years' time, unfortunately.

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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