I echo Deputy McAuliffe's calls regarding making sure that An Garda Síochána understands the powers it has and has all of the supports and equipment necessary to enforce these powers. My constituency borders that of Deputy McAuliffe. I express my condolences to Grace Lynch's family. What happened was horrific. There is a similar issue with scramblers in Santry in my constituency. We have to do everything we can to ensure that An Garda Síochána has the resources, manpower and technology to ensure this never happens again. At a meeting of the Joint Committee on Transport this week, we heard about the stark and distressing rise in road fatalities. Again today, we have seen a major crash in Dublin city centre in which a number of pedestrians have been injured and, unfortunately and tragically, another person has lost their life leaving a family devastated. I am sure the thoughts and condolences of all of us in this House are with those affected today and the emergency service personnel who have had to deal with it. We know that reducing speed saves lives. At the transport committee this week, we heard overwhelming testimony from the witnesses that we have to reduce the speed on our roads. We have to achieve a default of 30 km/h in all urban areas. The Government has directed local authorities to reduce speed limits in built-up areas by March 2027 with investment, signage and implementation. We heard very concerningly from the witnesses this week that the procedures the local authorities have to undertake to implement these reduced speed limits are overly bureaucratic. They have to go out to public consultation and they have to pass it through votes. We need to see the Department of Transport really leading and supporting local authorities to deliver on this. Lives are being lost. We have to deliver reduced speed. All of the research tells us this. We have seen it in Spain and Wales and we need to see it here in Ireland before March 2027 but no later than March 2027.

Sentiment score: -0.06