I wish to join with every Member of the House in remembering and paying tribute to the 183 lives that were lost on Irish roads in 2025, the largest number of fatalities on our roads since 2014. Of course, my heart also goes out to those impacted by this afternoon's horrendous bus crash in Dublin city centre and to the family of the deceased and those injured. Every life lost on our roads is a family devastated, an empty chair at the dinner table and a heart broken beyond repair. Of immense concern to me and no doubt my colleagues in this Chamber is the fact that since the end of Covid-19, road deaths have been on the rise in Ireland. Last year, there was an average of 15 deaths per month on the roads in Ireland, an increase on the average of 14 deaths per month in 2024. Clearly we must do more in this Chamber to ensure the message gets through: slow down because speed kills. For families grieving the sudden loss of a loved one in a road traffic accident, it can only feel like a meaninglessly cruel and random event. Last year, over half of the fatalities occurred on high-speed roads, those with a speed limit of 80 km/h and above. Carlow County Council has led from the front in applying a reduced speed limit to the section of the N80 that runs through the county, in direct response to an uptick in recent incidents on that stretch of road. Likewise, Kilkenny County Council's road safety plan has set out a strategic vision for the remainder of the decade aimed at engaging with the relevant stakeholders to bring about a safe environment on our roads. Outside Glenmore in south Kilkenny, a 6 km stretch of the N25 is among the most lethal pieces of road in the country. You are five times more likely to be killed or seriously injured on this section of road than on any other road in Ireland. Similarly, the Waterford to Cahir scheme on the N24 is stalled between stages 2 and 3, awaiting the necessary backing before it can proceed. People in Kilkenny are crying out for this work to be progressed urgently and to curb the senseless and utterly preventable tragedies. The time for talk is over; now is the time to act. I urge the relevant Ministers to do everything in their power to ensure these life-saving projects across the N24 and N25 are progressed as quickly as possible. Road tragedies remind us that everything can change in an instant and we should adopt that attitude when it comes to safety on the road. Everything can change for the worse, but it can also change for the better. I commend the RSA on its dedication to Vision Zero and on the outreach and education work it does on an ongoing basis to increase awareness of our own responsibilties on the road.

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