Thomas Gould: Options, Not a Road Safety Strategy
Thomas Gould addresses the Dail to condemn the government’s road safety document as inadequate and insulting to bereaved families. He highlights rising road death figures in Cork and nationwide, and urges urgent, concrete action rather than a short list of options.
Thomas Gould says the published document is not a strategy but "a short list of options" and is inadequate for preventing further deaths on Irish roads. He challenges the Minister to go beyond paper options and deliver clear, implementable measures.
Gould cites alarming figures from Cork - 21 deaths in 2025, 18 in 2024 and 7 in 2021 - and warns the state is moving backwards on road safety. He also notes that 336 people died on Irish roads while the report was being prepared, underlining the urgent human cost.
He pays tribute to paramedics and ambulance crews who first attend these tragedies, linking their frontline experiences to recent industrial action and calling for fair conditions and pay. Gould stresses that emergency staff deserve solidarity and better treatment from the government.
Gould closes by demanding tangible commitments: a true strategy with firm measures, not a 34-page document of five options. He urges the Minister to act now to prevent more families being bereaved and to address the concerns of emergency services.
Main criticism
Thomas Gould says the published document is not a strategy but "a short list of options" and is inadequate for preventing further deaths on Irish roads. He challenges the Minister to go beyond paper options and deliver clear, implementable measures.
Rising road toll and local impact
Gould cites alarming figures from Cork - 21 deaths in 2025, 18 in 2024 and 7 in 2021 - and warns the state is moving backwards on road safety. He also notes that 336 people died on Irish roads while the report was being prepared, underlining the urgent human cost.
Frontline workers and compassion
He pays tribute to paramedics and ambulance crews who first attend these tragedies, linking their frontline experiences to recent industrial action and calling for fair conditions and pay. Gould stresses that emergency staff deserve solidarity and better treatment from the government.
Demand for action
Gould closes by demanding tangible commitments: a true strategy with firm measures, not a 34-page document of five options. He urges the Minister to act now to prevent more families being bereaved and to address the concerns of emergency services.
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Transcript
Minister I wish I was in here welcoming this with a sense of hope but Minister this isn't a strategy, it's a short list of options. People are dying on our roads we are one of the only states in Europe that are going backwards in relation to road safety. 21 people tragically died on the roads of Cork in 2025, 18 died in 2024, 7 died in 2021. These are horrific figures. Each of these has a family that are distraught, heartbroken with grief and it plunges families, some families never come back from the heartache of a death like this. But then at the same time you're coming in here today with providing five options, that's not a strategy Minister. It's nothing short of an insult to those families and those who that have died. We want to see real action, they want to see real action, they want to see a real strategy that will go further and help prevent deaths. They don't want options, they want action. This so-called strategy, here it is, 34 pages, 34 pages and what we have is five options coming out of that. So that meant to write this there was one page a week in the last two years, right? That's the time it took to put this together and publish it and to come up with five options and no clear actions and tragically in the time while you were working on this report, 336 people died on our roads. It's unbelievable, it's so heartbreaking Minister. And the other point I want to make is the first people on the scene of these tragedies are our frontline people, the paramedics, ambulance drivers, those who are there and those are the same people who were on, that I stood, I was proud to stand with yesterday on the picket lines and they're not being valued by this government and still in odd, they're going to the scenes of these accidents and they're seeing the darkest days of people's lives, they're trying everything they do to save people or to show compassion but this government isn't showing compassion for anyone. They deserve fair play, they deserve fair conditions and a fair pay and I want to send my solidarity to them and I hope that this government will step up now and sort this out before there's any more strikes next week. And the final point to all those people in the emergency services who go to these accidents, I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart but also for all the people who are affected because they're doing unbelievable work. Minister, you need to do more.