Mr. Sam Waide:

First, my thoughts go out to the families, in particular the families of the 117 people who have lost their lives on Irish roads this year. As commented earlier, the second half of this year has been lesser than the first part of the year, but it continues to be a concern to the RSA, the Garda Síochána and other agencies.

On the Senator’s particular question as to why that has been the case, what we have found is that speed continues to be part of the challenge we have on Irish roads. This concerns the drivers of vehicles in particular, and almost half of the fatalities this year have involved drivers of vehicles. We have a number of operational actions that the Garda and the RSA are working on. We have maintained and increased our campaign and education awareness over the summer, and I believe that has had a positive impact, albeit collisions, serious injuries and fatalities continue. There are also actions within the strategy that we are progressing, one of which is a speed review group, and those recommendations are due in December of this year.

There are a number of actions and interventions in play.