It has been a year now since we last had statements on road safety, and in the interim, we have multiple vehicle-related deaths. In 2025, there were 185 fatalities recorded by the RSA - that is up 8% - comprising 76 drivers, 41 pedestrians, 30 motorcyclists, 21 passengers, 14 cyclists and three e-scooter users. There have been too many tragic deaths in the first five weeks of this year as well. My thoughts go out to the families and individuals involved in the bus incident today. More details will come out in due course. The Government has to bear responsibility for all these deaths over the last number of years because the system is not functioning. Enforcement has weakened as Garda roads policing numbers have fallen and it will get worse. There is dangerous behaviour in cars – speeding, phone use, breaking lights, selfish behaviour, dangerous scramblers, e-scooters and illegal driving, unchecked far too often – and while safety measures have been announced, they have not been implemented yet or delivered quickly enough. These include the lower speed limits, stronger penalties and rules for the long-term learner drivers. Meanwhile, more families grieve. We need a zero-tolerance approach to breaking red lights, yellow-box misbehaviour, scooters with no visibility, scramblers and sulky racing on public roads. We probably also need a dedicated Garda traffic corps that goes beyond the internal Garda roads policing unit. We need higher fines, more seizures and zero tolerance at this stage.

Sentiment score: -0.16