Road safety minister blames ‘everyone involved’, including road users, for rising death toll

The Minister of State with responsibility for road safety has defended his record as the number of deaths on Irish roads continue to rise.“I don’t look at the record and say, ‘Is it a failure of me?’“It’s a failure of everybody involved, including road users,” Minister of State for Transport Seán Canney said on Monday. His remarks come after another grim weekend on Ireland’s roads saw four fatalities, with the number of deaths overall on course to be higher than last year’s total. READ MORECanney, an Independent TD for Galway East, is hosting an informal meeting of EU transport ministers in Dublin Castle on Monday where they are due to discuss road safety and the fuel crisis. The meeting is part of Ireland’s presidency of the Council of the European Union.There were 190 deaths on Ireland’s roads in 2025, up from 171 people losing their lives in 2024. As of Monday, Garda statistics show there were 138 deaths on the roads so far this year, compared to 127 for the same period last year.Canney expressed his sympathy with the bereaved families from the latest fatal collisions on the roads. “Too much of it is happening. We have seen what has happened over the summer on our roads,” he said. [ Four people killed in separate road crashes in Wexford, Limerick, Meath and WaterfordOpens in new window ]Canney said that is why he has been progressing road safety legislation, and he also said he will be signing regulations to ban e-scooter use by under-18s this week. This is due to come into effect on October 2nd.He pointed to remarks by EU Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas who spoke of 20,000 deaths per year on European roads and efforts to reduce this number.Canney said: “That would be classed as a pandemic if it was a disease that was causing that. So we need to arrest this increase and to bring it back.”When asked about the increase in road deaths during his time as Minister of State, and if he could stand over this record, Canney said everything from a legislative and educational point of view is being done.“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.“That is something that we have got to address, nip it in the bud.”He also said the Government has “dealt with” e-scooters and 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 road users.“99 per cent of the people on the roads drive with due care, but we have some people who don’t, and I’ve seen accidents on the road myself.”He mentioned seeing a car lose control on a patch of water on a motorway and spin around. “Luckily, nobody was injured, but it could have been fatal if there was more traffic on the motorway at that time.”