Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the CEO and her board members for coming in today.

I compliment the Road Safety Authority on the good work it has done for many years in the areas of policy formation and advocacy and on playing a leading role on road safety. While last year was not the most successful year in the area of road safety, the trajectory over many years has been downward, which is very welcome. As I have to leave the meeting shortly, I ask the witnesses to respond first to my questions to allow me to leave.

I raised with the Minister the composition of the board of the Road Safety Authority on which there are a number of vacancies. He conceded that at least two vacancies should be filled, one to provide accountancy expertise and a second to provide advocacy expertise. The Irish Road Victims Association, which has done great advocacy work on road safety, is one possibility. Would the filling of these vacancies be sufficient to ensure the board is able to do its work to its full potential? Are any of the vacancies impeding its work?

Ms Murdock alluded to pedestrians and cyclists. I raised the issue of pedestrians with the Minister because seven or 40% of the 16 deaths on the roads so far this year have been pedestrians. This is a very high figure. While advocacy is fine, rules and regulations are required to ensure people take necessary precautions. Anyone who walks along a roadside at night wearing dark clothing is behaving just as dangerously as someone who chooses not to wear a seat belt or to break another rule of the road. What should be done in this area? Should legislation be introduced to make high visibility clothing mandatory? Should mandatory distances be introduced for different speed zones in respect of drivers overtaking cyclists?

The Road Safety Authority is responsible for the inspection of commercial vehicles. I understand it has introduced a new system using red, amber and green coding. Under this new system, RSA inspectors will be alerted to persons with poor road traffic records by a code red and they will then carry out on-the-spot checks. Code amber is obviously not as bad as red and code green will appear where the driver has a good record. I am informed that the RSA does not publicise the criteria by which the different codes are applied. While someone in code green will be fine as he or she does not need to make improvements, someone with an amber code will find it difficult to find out which changes are needed to change his or her code to green. I ask Ms Murdock to elaborate on this system.

The Chairman and Minister discussed the issue of a driver app in the previous session and Ms Murdock also referred to the issue. I am aware that the RSA is working with Toyota on this issue, albeit not exclusively for Toyota vehicles. Many other businesses have developed apps and they are willing to work with the Road Safety Authority on a pilot basis to identify how their apps could be of assistance. An app would be beneficial from the point of view of tracking driver patterns and enabling this information to be collated for future policy formation. People with a good track record would then be offered support, perhaps through reduced insurance premiums. How far advanced is the RSA in terms of piloting such an app? Is it ready to go out to tender or seek expressions of interest and tangible proposals from various parties? How long will it take to reach this point?

On drink driving, I asked the Minister how often alcohol was found in the system of those killed in road traffic accidents. As the RSA collates this information, it is probably more appropriate to put the question to it. Can we quantify the level of alcohol involved? As I stated, there is a significant difference between someone having a glass of wine with dinner at 7 p.m. and driving to pay someone a visit at 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. and someone who drinks a bottle of wine before driving. Does the RSA have data showing how often alcohol has been determined to be the cause in fatal road traffic accidents?