John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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As many of the points I wished to raise have been covered I will not repeat them. I welcome the delegations and thank them for their presentations. In regard to the 186 people who died on the roads last year, is there a breakdown on the numbers who died at 3 a.m. or 4 a.m.? When an accident occurs at that time there is no speed detection and it is automatically assumed it is the result of drink driving. All the points made were sensible and reasonable but can the number of deaths be reduced further? For example, if I am travelling home to Mayo from Dublin, a great time to drive is from 12 midnight to 2 a.m. because there is no traffic. What is the issue?

Speed detection has been changed in recent years with the introduction of speed vans and so on. I am interested to hear the comments of the delegations on the effect of the change as their locations are predictable. I have noticed in the past year that the Garda announce it will be in a particular area from Friday to Monday on a particular weekend. Previously this happened only on bank holiday weekends throughout the country but now it is focused in certain places. Is there a danger that motorists who know where and when the speed checkpoints are located will increase their speed on the way to work on a Monday when they know detection is out of the way? Given the number of live websites, one can check before starting out on a journey if a checkpoint is on a particular road. While I am not into technology, I wonder whether there is a possibility that people will check the speed points on their iPhones and will break the law in all directions. I would appreciate the comments of the delegation on those issues.