Richard O'Donoghue criticises blanket 60 km/h limit on local roads

Today, on International Workers' Day, I just wanted to say to you, based on carbon tax, I just want to give you a few figures for yourselves, and as you know I like figures. There are 3.2 million vehicles in this country, and I want to talk about the speed limits that you brought in. National roads, 5,413 kilometres, no change. National secondary roads, 2,696, regional roads, 13,122, and local roads equals 81,293 kilometres of local roads. One strike of a pin, you have reduced the local roads down to 60 kilometres. Some of these roads are six metres wide, but rather than come in and say, we have roads that are unsafe, let our local authorities say, this road is three metres wide, reduce it. If this road is not safe, reduce it. You have done a blanket ban across all local roads, 81,293 kilometres of road at 60k. How do we work that into brass tacks? If you work out the average vehicles, and I have myself, that gives every vehicle on the local roads, 3.2 million vehicles, I even reduce this back to 50 per cent. Back to 1.5 million. 17 gallons, they are using extra, based on the mileage that you would be doing. 24,000 on a diesel, 17,000 on a petrol vehicle, they are burning 17 gallons more. And we are rising carbon tax. Now when we go to our Europeans, and we are going to be paying fines for not meeting our carbon tax. We are now taxing people more by reducing speed limits in areas that you can actually get up to a decent speed limit. But you are travelling across the country now in 4th gear in the car. 4th gear, because I have checked all the averages of all the cars across the country, and it is 4th gear over 81,293 kilometres is what you are in. On a 5 speed, on a 6 speed car, and even your automatic 7 speeds. It is 4th to 5th gear on a 7 speed, between a 5 speed gearbox and a 6 speed gearbox you are in 4th gear. That means you are burning more fuel. That means you are causing more emissions, and you are rising carbon tax for people. That is what I am looking at. So it is not saving lives, Minister, not putting people at 60 kilometres, in a road that is not safe to do so, you are saving lives. In a 6 metre wide road, do you realise what 6 metres is? That is from me over here to the Tarnestown. That is the width of the road you are talking about. But you have done a blanket ban across the country on local roads. I am asking you to reduce speed limits on roads that are unsafe, and then put in the appropriate speed limits on roads that are safe. But you have just done it across the whole sector. Thank you. Thank you. Tarnestown. Thank you very much. I was taking a lot of figures there, but I appreciate you have done a lot of work, Deputy O'Donnell. Thank you in relation to that. Look, I think the debate, and I think the purpose of your question is largely around the whole issue of carbon tax. But on the issue of speed limits, I mean, it is about trying to get this right. It is about recognising that far too many people, and we all share this view, far too many people die on Irish roads. And the progress being very honest, the progress that we had made as a country is now at best stalled, and indeed in recent years has gone backwards. And we all know and think of far too many tables that have an empty seat around them. And the speed limits issue is about trying to get that right because speed kills. And certainly as politicians, certainly as a politician, I like to rely on the expert advice and input of the likes of the road safety authority in terms of how we get this right. But I do think it is important that we empower on local roads, particularly the local authorities, because they sometimes have that degree of local knowledge in terms of recognising the safety of roads and can feed in positively to that too. In relation to carbon, I think we have to be very honest in relation to the climate debate in this country. We have a huge amount of work to do to get our country to where it needs to be, to get Europe to where it needs to be in relation to climate action. And one part, and it is a small part of the overall piece of work that has to be done, is in relation to carbon tax and in relation to what that revenue is used for. And I know you would be on to minister's offices on behalf of your constituents in Limerick, no doubt, and you would be talking about the fuel allowance and you would be talking about the retrofishing. And I am very pleased to say that a lot of the money that is collected through the carbon tax is now going back into that. So what it is trying to do is make sure that there is a fairness to this. That Minister Caleri's department as one example is seeing that a lot of people who, in terms of expanding the fuel allowance, the funding of that is coming directly from carbon tax. So sometimes people wonder when I pay this, where does it go? Well, actually it is being used to try and make sure that those most in need are keeping warm, thankfully we have a nice day today, but those most in need are keeping warm can do that. And also making sure from a climate point of view that we make it easier for people to meet the cost and the need in terms of retrofilling their own home as well. So we have a fundamental policy disagreement on this, and I recognise that up front. But we have been very clear in relation to the Climate Change Advisory Council's recommendation, in relation to the recommendation of the scientific experts that feed into them, and we do use climate tax as one of a number of measures to try and get Ireland to where it needs to be in relation to climate action. Thank you. I am glad that you said that the local authorities should have had a part to play in this, which they did not, and that is what I have asked for, is that the local authorities make the decisions on the roads that are safe and not safe to do, and not across. 89% of the vehicles in this country are petrol and diesel. How many of you over there are driving petrol and diesel? Come on, be honest. 89% of the vehicles in Ireland are petrol and diesel. 89% of the people that you are overtaxing are the working people that are actually in this country that you are talking about the minimum wage. These are the people that you are overtaxing. And then what you do is you put another liability on top of them on local road tax. So you are taxing the same people that you are trying to help. I am asking for common sense. And my common sense was, when I said it to you, local roads give it to the local authorities, let them look at the rating and speed them. That is common sense. That means you have a tiered system. Right? The road safety authorities have to do their job, but the local roads is local information. Also when it comes to taxing, what you have done is you are overtaxing people already that are on a red line and they cannot put food on their table. Again, I am looking for pay parity for everyone. Thanks, Deputy. Remember, this is the working people we are talking about here. I often say to myself that we need more common sense in politics. The problem is that common sense is a subjective concept. I actually think there is common sense in collecting revenue through a carbon tax and specifically doing what our programme for government commits. Very honestly, very upfront, it says we are going to continue to use carbon tax revenues to fund social welfare measures, in other words, those most in need. Agri-environmental schemes, in other words, helping our farmers, not lecturing them, not talking down to them, helping them in terms of the adaptations that they need to make to continue to produce some of the best food produce in the world, and retrofitting, helping make people's homes more environmentally friendly, more warm and cheaper to eat. That is where we are trying to get to. I think we also, to be honest, when it comes to climate, there is a much low-hanging fruit. There is a climate emergency, the planet is on fire, we are trying to take pragmatic, practical measures to help move the dial in relation to the changes we need to make in Ireland. Thank you. Thank you.