I acknowledge the work of the Minister of State, the NTA and other bodies in establishing and creating this national safety camera strategy. After a period of improvement and positive trends in relation to road deaths, which were 472 in 1997 and dropped to 137 in 2021, that trend is now reversing. There were 190 deaths in 2025 and 175 in 2024. It is critical that action be taken to improve road safety for citizens across the country. With regard to the new governance, the Garda is responsible for the enforcement of camera-detected speed offences. What is critical is that those locations be examined properly. I am thinking of Kildare, in particular the N4, and I am sure the Minister of State has seen this when travelling from Galway to Dublin. Time and again, we see speed vans in hidden locations, particularly on motorways. We see drivers putting their foot on the brake extremely quickly to try to avoid detection, with all the danger that causes on the motorway. It is something An Garda Síochána needs to be very reticent to do. It has to be admitted that it is bad driver behaviour to be speeding on a motorway or any road. However, I have seen instances, particularly in poor weather, where the location of the speed cameras can cause additional danger to road users. I ask An Garda Síochána and all bodies to be mindful of that. One point in the strategy is the establishment of the camera enforcement oversight group, which will be extremely welcome in its role in co-ordinating operations, data, research and policy needs. What I would ask, and what I have not seen in the strategy, is that there would be a feedback loop from public representatives and the public at large. That would be extremely welcome and helpful to the work of the oversight group. The members of An Garda Síochána see the black spots and understand where particular incidents can happen. However, members of the public also have historic knowledge of bends and bad turns, which would be quite useful. That is something that should be looked at in respect of this particular strategy. Looking at the scope of enforcement, I welcome the fact that there is a focus on speeding, as well as red light offences and bus lane offences. However, this all comes down to poor and bad driver behaviour. I think we all acknowledge and realise that. This is not excusing any of that bad driver behaviour, but what we have seen, in large urban settings in particular, is traffic congestion. I look at Kildare, Maynooth, Kilcock, Celbridge, Leixlip and Naas. Nearly every town in the county is growing exponentially and the traffic is growing with it. It causes great frustration to everybody. I think of young parents under severe pressure trying to pick up one child from one school and then get to another school to pick up the other kid, for example, if they are in a boys school and a girls school. Traffic congestion adds to bad driver behaviour. As I said, I am not excusing in any way, shape or form bad driver behaviour, but we have to understand the reasons behind bad driver behaviour. It is not just people acting out of badness. A lot of the time, it is due to stress, time and whatever it may be. Galway is a good example of a city that is growing exponentially. There is talk of progressing the ring road there, which is great news for the people of Galway. A ring road is now being built in Maynooth. In Celbridge, a second bridge is needed. Leixlip is completely congested as well. When we are building out and building more homes and communities in these towns, what is crucial is that we build the physical infrastructure, particularly the road infrastructure, to go with it. If we do not, then we have seen the evidence that it leads to bad driver behaviour. I would ask that this be considered in the future.

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