Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. I wish to congratulate Michael Finn who serves in Cork on his elevation to assistant commissioner and wish him all the best. Rural Ireland is not bandit country. In the past few days, an old age pensioner had the misfortune to be murdered in Ballysaggart, which is just over the road from me. As the Garda was able to do its job, that means the force is on the ground and there is a Garda presence in rural Ireland. I commend the force on what it is able to do even with such limited resources.

Everyone has been touched, directly or indirectly, by drunk drivers who cause fatalities on the roads. We must acknowledge there has been a phenomenal increase in traffic on the roads in the past number of years, especially in the past two years compared with four or five years ago. That is borne out by statistics. It was mentioned that 3% of accidents are due to the condition of the road and the condition of the roads is not keeping pace with the volume of traffic. Most cars that go for the NCT fail it. If a car ends up in a crash, the technical people who investigate the crash sites are able to determine whether there were vehicle problems as well. Do the Garda statistics show up whether faulty vehicles were involved in crashes?

A campaign by the Road Safety Authority on driver fatigue, where drivers who were feeling tired were told to pull in, was a very good campaign that should be run again.

I am aware of two fatalities on the motorway I use because people accessed the motorway from the wrong way. It is back to the RSA and Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, in regard to road design. Deaths occur on the roads for many reasons. I thank the witnesses for coming before us today.