Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

The road safety strategy 2007-12 is being successfully implemented across a range of agencies. We have seen a sustained reduction in the number of people killed on our roads. The core objective of the road safety strategy is to reduce road deaths to no greater than 60 fatalities per million population by the end of 2012. This is an average of 21 road deaths per month or 252 deaths per annum.

The year 2008 saw the lowest number of road deaths on record at 279, despite the large increase in the number of drivers and vehicles on our roads in recent years. As at this morning, there have been 225 road deaths so far in 2009. This is 40 fewer than for the same period in 2008. It is important to maintain the momentum in road safety measures, as each fatality and serious injury is a tragedy for families, friends and communities.

The Road Safety Authority's report to me on the implementation of the 126 actions in the strategy in 2008 is being finalised but it is clear that substantial progress has been made. Many of the actions for that year are completed and substantial progress has been made on the majority of the rest. Work has also begun on other longer-term actions in the strategy. With regard to my Department's 2009 actions, five have been completed and five are in hand. Two of these are included in the Road Traffic Bill 2009 published on 30 October 2009, that is, lowering the blood alcohol concentration, BAC, levels and providing for preliminary impairment testing.

The road safety strategy is challenging and ambitious and even when target dates are missed, we must not lose sight of the underlying achievement. Fatalities on our roads have fallen significantly and people are alive today that might be not otherwise be.

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