Road safety minister says rising death toll on Irish roads is a 'failure of everybody'

At the start of Monday morning’s informal meeting of EU transport ministers, he was asked by reporters how he will be able to stand over his record as junior minister with the number of deaths on Irish roads. 

The rising death toll on Irish roads is down to the “failure of everybody”, the Minister of State with responsibility for road safety, Seán Canney, has said. File photo. 

The rising death toll on Irish roads is down to the “failure of everybody”, the Minister of State with responsibility for road safety, Seán Canney, has said.

His comment came after a weekend in which four people were killed in separate road crashes in Limerick, Meath, Waterford and Wexford.

At the start of Monday morning’s informal meeting of EU transport ministers, he was asked by reporters how he will be able to stand over his record as Minister of State with responsibility for road safety with the high number of deaths on Irish roads. 

He prefaced his remarks by expressing his sympathy for the families of those who died.

Asked about his own road safety record in government, he said: “Everything that, from a legislation point of view, is being done.

“Everything from an education point is being done. 

“I would say that I take no joy in seeing the number of road deaths going up.

“We saw where somebody deliberately went down the wrong way on a motorway, killing five people, and that is something that we have got to address.

“We have dealt with e-scooters.

“We're dealing with scramblers, and we're continuing to monitor what is happening and also using technologies.

“So I don't look at the record and say, ‘Is it a failure of me?’ It's a failure of everybody involved, including every road user.” He added: “99% of the people on the roads drive with due care, but we have some people who don't.” 

E-scooters 

Mr Canney also said that he is due to sign into law the requirement that only people aged 18 and over can drive an e-scooter on public roads.

Since September 4, it is now an offence to ride an e-scooter without wearing a helmet and a high-visibility item of clothing.

E-scooter users deemed to be non-compliant with the new rules can be issued a fixed-charge penalty of €100.

But from October 2, as well as fees for detention and storage of seized e-scooters due to be doubled, rising to €80 for detention and the first day of storage and €30 for each additional day of storage, the legal age of e-scooter users is to rise from 16 to 18.

Garda numbers 

He repeated his admission previously about garda numbers, saying: “We don't have the required number of guards that we need.

“Our population in this country has increased by 750,000 since 2015, so our numbers should be more rather than less.

“The single biggest thing that was being commented on was enforcement and the lack of visibility.

“What can I do about that? I have been talking to the Minister for Justice and to the Assistant Garda Commissioner, who has responsibility for road policing, and they are trying to up the game in terms of more visibility, but also using technology so we can be more efficient in our detection and enforcement.” 

He added: “I would love to see another 400 gardaí on the traffic policing.

“I would love to see that, but if you don't have the bodies, you cannot get them there."