I had the opportunity to raise road safety with the Tánaiste earlier this afternoon. I was glad he was able to confirm that the ridiculous notion of a proposed mandatory requirement for helmets for people using a push bike is not going ahead. I welcome his confirmation of that. During that discussion, I also raised some of issues raised at the Joint Committee on Transport's meeting on road safety yesterday. Three key issues were raised by people who represent cyclists but other vulnerable road users as well. First, there is their concern about the U-turn with respect to the Road Safety Authority, RSA. There had been a clear agreement reached in the last Government to separate out that public information element and to let the RSA focus on that. That has been reversed and it will have to continue to try to do that while at the same time bring in its own income. That is not the right focus there. Second, there is the issue of 30 km/h zones in built-up areas. When I was on Fingal County Council, estates were fighting to be part of that pilot because they knew it would bring a greater degree of safety for communities, particularly for children. Somebody hit by a car travelling at 30 km/h has a 90% chance of surviving that crash. When the speed goes up to 60 km/h, there is almost a 100% likelihood that the crash will kill them. That is the difference. We have the power in law that makes it easy to bring in those 30 km/h zones across large parts of built-up areas but the decision has been made to make it harder with each local authority undertaking long, arduous processes to deliver what could be a life-saving decision for an area. People raised the Crowe report early last year and issues to do with policing, particularly the focus of An Garda Síochána in regard to roads policing. That really undermined confidence in people, whether they are in the car, on the bike or on foot. It is important that the Minister for justice give us an update on the response to that report.
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