Ms Moyagh Murdock:

On the Deputy's first question regarding drug driving and while it is still very early days, we have the findings from Professor Cusack of the Medical Bureau of Road Safety from a survey of the coroner's court in Kildare. The findings were that of the fatal collisions involving alcohol, 50% of those involved also had drugs in their system. It is a significant portion. Other than that, we do not have more detailed information at this point. However, we believe it is a major factor. Where somebody is drinking there is also a strong possibility that drugs are on the scene too.

I welcome the Deputy's comments on our advertisements. Our behaviour and attitudes surveys indicate that it is one of the most effective means of getting the message across. Our two most recent advertisements, "Don't look back", dealing with parents who get distracted by children in the back seat, and the one dealing with the anatomy of a split second, with the most recent one demonstrating the dangers of using one's mobile telephone, have been very successful.

Regarding school interventions and education, we fully agree that it is important to reach children early. We start in the maternity wards with our packs, so it is quite early. We also have our "Check it Fits" campaign throughout the country. That deals with a big issue, the importance of proper child restraints. Tragically, yesterday we heard the outcome of an inquest where a child restraint was inadequate. We cannot get the message across that four out of five child seats are not fitted correctly.

We have ten road safety educational officers who travel around all the schools in the country, both primary and secondary, to get the road safety message across. We have situational role play and different activities. We also conduct a major back-to-school campaign every year in which we distribute 80,000 high visibility vests in primary and secondary schools. We have a large amount of educational material available. In fact, we have just finished developing a new syllabus for a junior certificate course that we hope will be introduced, subject to the teachers and the educational boards adopting it. The syllabus is ready and it is an optional subject on road safety for the junior certificate. It is comprehensive and we believe that it will prove very effective in making young people aware of the importance of road safety. It deals not just with road safety but also with the physics and mathematics of road collisions.

My colleague, Ms Denise Barry, can comment on the importance of vehicle testing and the NCT.