Gay Mitchell (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)

I wish to share time with Deputies Kehoe, Enright, McGinley and Deenihan.

Each year more then 40,000 deaths are caused by road traffic accidents in the EU and, in addition to this unacceptable human suffering, there are substantial direct and indirect costs which have been estimated at €180 billion or 2% of EU GNP.

This is particularly important while the road safety standards and practices in the new member states are considerably lower than in the EU 15. Fine Gael MEPs in the European Parliament voted in favour of the own-initiative report of our French colleague Ari Vatanen in Strasbourg in September and the subsequent resolution that cross-border enforcement of road traffic law remains very unsatisfactory.

The discrepancies in the highway code between the Republic and Northern Ireland should be of particular relevance to the Government in this regard. Northern Ireland uses the miles per hour unit of measurement while we have recently converted to kilometres. The symbols and signs used in Ireland are almost identical to those in the North, as both jurisdictions have adopted the original British highway code almost directly. I am glad to see the operation of a penalty points system in the North, but what will the Government do to encourage the integration and mutual recognition of the two systems in order to promote cross border road safety? Bilateral action with Northern Ireland on this issue should be a priority. Legal adjustments would be necessary but surely the integration of both systems would not be a very costly task.

The European Parliament made a number of other very rational and original recommendations. The need for a European framework for safe infrastructure management is one point of interest for us in Ireland. Considering the huge overruns and mismanagement of many road projects which have been a feature of the Government's term in office, I would welcome a framework directive that would ensure Irish taxpayers enjoy the highest possible standards of road safety. The European Parliament resolution also called for the setting up of expert networks enabling the exchange of "best in Europe" approaches to safe road design and management.

There are four motor technologies that we must consider priorities in our fight to end carnage on the roads. The first involves seat belt reminders and advanced restraint systems. The second is electronic stability control or ESC as it is commonly known. International research is unanimous that the lifesaving potential of ESC is enormous. It is an electronic mechanism that compares a driver's intended course with the vehicle's actual movement, and if instability is detected, ESC can automatically apply brake and reduce engine torque.

The third technology involves speed limitation systems including intelligent speed adaption, ISA. This is a system which, with the use of an in-vehicle digital road map on to which speed limits have been coded, is aware of the permitted or recommended speed for any particular road. Research in Scandinavian countries has shown that the use of ISA could reduce crashes by around 35%. Finally, eCall, an emergency call generated manually by vehicle occupants or automatically via activation of in-vehicle sensors when an accident occurs, has the potential to greatly reduce the number of fatalities and injuries as well as stress in post-crash situations.

Some of these new ideas may be known to the House or to the Minister. I raise them for two good reasons. The figure for deaths on the roads so far this year is around 380. Three times as many people have died on the roads as died in Northern Ireland in the same 30-year period. That is a shocking indictment. When we think of all we did to help solve the Northern Ireland problem, which had to be done, we need to do something similar about deaths on the road. We must look at new ideas — if not the ones I mentioned, then others.

I ask the Minister of State to address one issue in particular when replying. I understand that the statistics of the community road accident database show that on average the number of males killed on our roads is almost triple the number of women. What specific measures is the Government taking to encourage a greater culture of safe driving among men in Ireland, particularly among young men? What can we learn from this and what emphasis is the Minister of State putting on this aspect?

I commend my colleague, Deputy Olivia Mitchell, for tabling this motion. A British Government study recently discovered that around 20% of accidents on long journeys on truck roads and motorways are caused by fatigue. Now that we have motorways, we must address these issues. We must approach this in a different way.

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