DUBLIN — 30 August 2026 — Two weeks after the M9 crash, Minister of State for Road Safety Seán Canney briefed reporters at Government Buildings on Friday 28 August. RTÉ’s Fiachra Ó Cionnaith and the Irish Times (19.30) both carried the same split: draft law next week, a tougher penalty, and AI on cameras that already exist. odo.ie has checked those reports against The Journal (18.27). The useful line is the one Canney himself used when asked why new legislation is needed if the act is already illegal: the penalty would be tougher. That is an aim. It is not a commencement order.
What Canney said on Friday
RTÉ: after an initial meeting with gardaí, Transport Infrastructure Ireland and the Road Safety Authority, Canney said it is crucial Ireland makes wrong-way motorway driving an “intolerable” act. The Journal, quoting the same briefing, added Department of Justice officials at the table and Canney calling the behaviour “intolerable” and “tempting fate.”
His department, he told RTÉ, will have formal responsibility for any law changes and will meet Justice “next week” to draft legislation. He wants the new laws in place by the end of the year and believes they will be part of the new Dáil term’s priority legislation. Asked by The Journal if it will be done by year-end: “Yeah, I think we will have to have legislation in place.” He also said amendments would be made to the Roads Act and done “fairly fast,” and that “with help of Attorney General’s office we will bring in legislation very quickly.”
That is a target, not a published Bill. No section numbers, no points table, no commencement date.
Tougher penalty — not a live rule
Pressed on why any new legislation is needed when the act is already illegal, Canney told RTÉ “the penalty” would be tougher, but did not elaborate. The Journal: “The legislation might be enough but the penalty might not be enough.” He said longer prison sentences should form part of the response, and that people who steal or take a car and deliberately drive at speed on the wrong side of a dual carriageway “need to be taken off the road.”
The Irish Times URL on the same day framed the proposal as harsher penalties for aggravated and wrong-way dangerous driving. The paper’s published headline led on AI detection; the standfirst was harsher penalties after the M9 crash. We have the headline and standfirst; the body is paywalled. Do not invent a sentence length the minister did not give.
Canney also drew a line The Journal recorded: “There are two elements to this, there are people who actually go down the wrong side of the motorway unintentionally and in error but there are people who go down the motorway deliberately… We have to look how we deal with them separately.” Accidental wrong-way (missed exit, confusion) is the RSA hard-shoulder drill. Deliberate contraflow is the penalty fight. Mixing them is how a sat-nav mistake gets talked about as if it were the M9.
AI on cameras already there
Separately — RTÉ’s lead — Canney said AI could be used with the existing road-camera network to warn people more quickly of a wrong-way vehicle and to help gardaí in how they deal with it.
“There is an opportunity with AI and the camera technology which we have at the moment,” he said. “The M50, for example, is well covered with cameras, and on the road to Cork there is a lot of camera networks there. What we need to do is continue with AI technology to help us detect quicker what’s going on, maybe have alerts quicker, and also the gardaí would then maybe be better placed to see how they deal with it.”
That sits on top of what TII already told RTÉ on 24 August: when the Motorway Operations Control Centre is aware of a wrong-way driver, it logs the incident and variable-message signs can warn of an oncoming vehicle. Canney’s Friday line is faster detection from cameras already on the network — not a promise of new poles on every rural motorway. The Irish Times (24 August) had already noted that TII’s camera map is predominantly Dublin and Cork. AI does not invent coverage that is not there.
He also said social media platforms such as TikTok “must do more,” and that officials are “monitoring” the site. Other countries’ public-protection measures are being examined; he name-checked the US. Asked about confidence in the RSA’s most senior officials, he told RTÉ he has “full confidence” in the organisation.
Three stories, not one
Keep the beats separate:
- 20–21 August — RSA publishes Ireland’s first official oncoming-driver checklist, after telling The Journal it had none. That advice is still the driver-facing line.
- 24 August — TII: 62 detections January to mid-August, up 32% on 47. GRA: “out of control.” Detections, not a new offence.
- 28 August — Canney: draft tougher penalties next week with Justice, target end-2026; float AI on existing cameras. This piece. Nothing in it changes what you do if a car comes at you tonight.
Garda pursuits — a separate track
The Journal recorded Canney saying they will also consider legislation to protect gardaí in pursuits, “if it is needed.” That is adjacent to, not the same as, a tougher wrong-way penalty. Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan had already said after the M9 crash that a standalone deliberate-wrong-way offence would be considered, and that pursuit training was coming. Friday did not enact either. GRA members have said they lack specialist pursuit training; that debate is live. It is not this Bill until a text exists.
What drivers should do now
Unchanged from the RSA PDF: if a vehicle comes at you the wrong way, stay calm, create space, leave at the next safe exit or service area, call 999 or 112. If you realise you are the one going the wrong way: hard shoulder, stop, do not turn or reverse. Missed your exit? Continue to the next one.
Watch the gantries if TII posts an oncoming-vehicle warning. Do not wait for an AI product that has not been specified, tendered or switched on.
Laws move. Your log still has to.
Keep NCT, tax and insurance dates in one place — free for one car — so the admin is not the thing you are thinking about at 120 km/h.
Sources
- RTÉ — Fiachra Ó Cionnaith, 28 August 2026 (updated 17.56) — Canney briefing: draft law next week, penalty tougher, end-2026 aim, AI on existing cameras, M50/Cork coverage, TikTok, full confidence in RSA
- The Irish Times (28 August 2026, 19.30) — “Wrong-way motorway driving could be detected by AI”; standfirst on harsher penalties after the M9 crash; URL framing aggravated and wrong-way dangerous driving
- The Journal (28 August 2026, 18.27) — longer prison sentences as Canney’s aim; Roads Act amendments; unintentional vs deliberate; garda-pursuit protection “if needed”; Attorney General
- Irish Mirror (28 August) — same Canney quotes on year-end and “tempting fate”
- odo.ie — RSA wrong-way advice (22 August); TII +32% detections (25 August)