I thank the Ministers of State for being here to facilitate this important discussion on road safety. Looking at road safely overall in the past few decades, significant progress has been made and that has to be acknowledged. We went from 472 lives lost in 1997 to 137 lives lost in 2021. However, unfortunately, the progress has halted and we have seen an increase in fatalities on our roads in recent years. Last year, as the Ministers of State will be aware, 190 lives were lost on our roads. It is frustrating to see the trajectory going backwards, given the progress that had been made. The road safety strategy the programme for Government committed to is important in this respect to try to arrest the decline in progress. I share the concerns raised about scramblers. Many speakers spoke about that today. The progress in improved regulations and enforcement is important, as it is in relation to e-scooters. However, I want to focus on pedestrian safety today, in particular because it is also an important aspect of road safety. Last year 41 pedestrians lost their lives in road traffic incidents. That is a significant number. On the infrastructure to improve road safety for pedestrians and pedestrian crossings, there is a total lack of consistency in how crossings are designed and constructed. There are uncontrolled crossings, controlled crossings and zebra crossings. There is a lack of consistency in the road markings, signage and so on. Any road safety strategy will have to address that issue so we have consistency in the infrastructure to serve pedestrians. For example, the high incidence of the breaking of red lights at pedestrian crossings must be dealt with. There needs to be zero tolerance of this. We need to install cameras at busy pedestrian crossings to try to deal with this offence because it is very dangerous. It can have serious consequences and is prevalent, regrettably. We also need to look at our crossings. All pedestrian crossings should be raised platforms to make them safer. Again, there is a lack of consistency with that. Many new crossings have a raised platform but existing crossings do not. I ask that be taken on board. I share the concerns Deputy Michael Murphy raised earlier about the roads policing unit and replenishing the numbers in the traffic corps of An Garda Síochána.

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This is critical because enforcement has to be a key part of road safety. I ask the Ministers of State to take that back.

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