Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I am glad to have an opportunity to contribute to the debate. I am hugely frustrated by the Government's failure to take practical and measurable steps to respond to the increasing number of road fatalities and to road safety generally. Ireland compares dismally with other EU member states regarding annual road deaths per head of population and it is the only country in the EU in which the number of road fatalities is increasing annually. A total of 323 people have been killed on our roads in the first ten months of the year, almost twice the population of the House. This is higher than for the corresponding period last year. Many of these accidents are avoidable and involve single vehicles while most are caused by driver error or poor road conditions.

People dying on our roads should not be an issue for political points scoring or division. I hope the Minister of State can tell from the tone of the debate that the issue is not being used by Fine Gael to score points. The House should support strong and prioritised policies to tackle the cause of so much tragedy on our roads. The Government and local authorities have done bits and pieces to handle the issue but the evidence is clear that the trend is headed in the wrong direction and policies are failing. The Government's primary target in its road safety strategy was a 25% reduction in road deaths so that there would be fewer than 300 deaths a year. However, we are nowhere near that and we are moving in the opposite direction.

The two most important issues are enforcement and improvement in driver behaviour. With regard to enforcement, the penalty points concept was good. It was supported by the Opposition when it was introduced and it was taken seriously by the public. It had a dramatic effect on the roads. Many Members spend a great deal of time on the road and there was a noticeable reduction in speeding in the six months following the introduction of the penalty points system. However, since then people have not taken penalty points seriously as an enforcement measure because they are not caught often enough. When they are caught, they do not receive notices of penalty points in the post. Sometimes the notices arrive three months are the incident, which does not allow an accused to challenge the offence. The system is not being taken seriously and people are dying as a result.

Three fixed speed cameras are in place throughout the State. I do not care whether the Government or a private company invests in and provides a network of speed cameras. My preference is that a private firm should create a network and deal with enforcement efficiently while being carefully monitored. The Government should get such a network up and running, whoever administrates it. There are no fixed speed cameras between Cork and Dublin, the two main cities in Ireland, even though the majority of this route is dual carriageway. There are no speed cameras between Cork and Limerick or between Galway and Dublin.

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