Seán Canney

Yeah, it's a worrying time, that's for sure.

Let's go to the phone lines and join Minister Sean Canney as we talk about the Galway City ring road.

Sean, thanks for chatting to us.

We'll have you for the first portion of this discussion anyway.

But is that

happening now, Eddie? I'm

unsure, but I take comfort from the fact that Sean Canney has said that it is the intention of the government.

But to date, not enough has been done.

on News Talk with Keir.

Now, Eamon Ryan, the chair of the EU Housing Advisory Board and, of course, former minister and former Green Party leader, thank you indeed for coming into us today.

Loads I want to talk to you about.

We start with where we're at in terms of global warming, how Ireland is doing.

And this will be at the COP negotiations in two weeks time or the week after next week in in Turkey is how do we build public support and then how do we use it to affect real quick change? Because it's it's getting much more more and more scary by the day.

If you were in government now, and I know you've moved on from politics, but how would you have done things differently in terms of what the government has done in relation to fossil fuels and reducing tax on them in the face of huge protests?

I tend not to want to be looking back over the government's shoulder because I think, you know, former minister, you give the incumbents time.

And I could literally probably list 20 things like the first week in government, the first day.

It was 13 years ago that proposals to limit the number of permits were included in the RSA's road safety strategy.

But it wasn't until last year that Sean Canney, the Minister of State at the Department of Transport, announced that these changes would be implemented.

So there's been a year's notice and the RSA says it has issued a letter saying, to all those who are on their third or subsequent permit to ensure that those people understand what's now required of them.

Now, road safety campaigners have been calling for this change for years.

They continue to not add up.

And we've got a meeting in Sullivan's Hotel on Monday, the 2nd of November at 7.30. We've invited all our local representatives to join us, including Sean Canney, I see the government have just launched a new policy, Our Rural Future, which is interesting given some of the elements of this policy are to build stronger communities, improve the quality of rural life and support rural businesses.

These are polar opposites to what's presented with GORE here and the prospect of this biogas facility.

The company involved, Sustainable Bioenergy Limited, erected a new site notice and published a newspaper notice last week as well.

So if we work collectively, work together and change that behaviour, Reducing those fatalities and serious injuries is possible.

Can I ask you finally about the proposed installation of breathalyser terminals in pubs? Were you put under pressure by Minister Sean Canney to abandon that plan?

The decision, RSA respects the decision, the ministerial decision to put that particular procurement on hold.

Our focus is interventions, educational interventions that helps people not only give them a better awareness, but actually change their behaviour better.

I wonder if I'm over the limit.

But ministers say Sean Canney put a stop to this fairly quickly because they saw it as being a way of people checking whether they could drink and drive rather than not doing it at all.

RSA came out and said, no, that wasn't the intention.

It was about raising awareness and we don't want anyone to drink anything at all and drive.

So, yeah, what would have been a 1.5 million tender was pulled fairly urgently.

But it's not a good sign of where we are in terms of the Road Safety Authority and the Minister Sean Canney, you know, and indeed the government, because...

It feels like there isn't a lot of communication going on between those two departments.

There was issues previously about communication around people driving the wrong way on motorways.

And in a brief respite from Jim O'Callaghan, can we just talk very briefly about the RSA, which had a bit of an embarrassing U-turn this week.

They cancelled their plan to install 20 breathalysers in pubs and hotels around the country after an intervention by not Jim O'Callaghan, but by an intervention by Junior Minister Sean Canney.

He's got responsibility for roads.

What happened there, Jane? Can you fill us in?

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

And then obviously, I mean, that seems to have gotten the ear of Sean Canney because then I think it was a day or two days later, there was a statement went out saying that no, actually this plan had been done away with.

So there's a press conference on this morning with Sean Canney and the RSA.