Pat Gallagher (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

I congratulate Deputy Olivia Mitchell for introducing this Bill. She stated there was an absence of effective cross-departmental and interagency action on road safety. A high level group on road safety, comprising representatives from various Departments and agencies, has been working for some time to promote full co-operation on cross-cutting issues and an integrated approach to the development of road safety in the monitoring and implementation of the strategy.

To signal that road safety is now at the top of the political agenda the Government has replaced the high level group with a ministerial committee on road transport under the chairmanship of my colleague, the Minister for Transport and including the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, the Minister for Finance, the Minister for Health and Children, the Minister for Education and Science and the Attorney General. The committee met on two occasions in recent weeks to pursue an integrated approach on all cross-cutting issues. Deputies referred to the penalty points system both last night and tonight and the system will be extended from next Monday to a total of 35 offences. The focus of the extension will be on offences relating to driver behaviour, which is the greatest cause of collisions. The response to earlier roll-out of the penalty points system resulted in a significant reduction in collisions and consequent injuries and fatalities.

The improvement in road safety reflected a more precautionary approach by drivers in the knowledge that repeated poor behaviour would result in the accumulation of penalty points. The reduction in road deaths experienced immediately after the launch of penalty points for speeding in October 2004 was exceptional but unfortunately was not sustained. A substantial increase in the number of penalty point offences will highlight the consequences of dangerous and irresponsible driving. This extension should have a positive impact on road safety but that impact will be given maximum potency when the new points are fully enforced.

My constituency colleague, Deputy McGinley, referred to the number of deaths arising from collisions in County Donegal. In view of the unacceptably high level of road fatalities in Donegal and, in particular, in the Inishowen peninsula I recently held urgent consultations with relevant officials in the county to discuss road safety. I also launched a seat belt campaign on behalf of Donegal County Council and a working group set up to increase awareness of the importance of seat belt wearing. The National Safety Council, in consultation with the Department of Transport, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the city and county managers association, is developing a template for road safety action plans which will be piloted in ten chosen local authority areas. The results of these pilots will inform the development of models that can subsequently be applied in all local authority areas throughout the country. Donegal County Council is participating in this pilot project and the development of a road safety plan for the county is under way.

Both the National Safety Council and the Garda have been active in pursuing road safety education initiatives at local level in Donegal. Furthermore, in response to the disturbing number of road fatalities in Inishowen a Garda traffic corps unit was established in the district on a pilot basis with effect from 20 October 2005. The unit was in addition to the traffic corps personnel already operating in the Donegal division. I am told it has been successful, notwithstanding the appalling tragedy some weeks ago when five non-nationals were killed. I believe that accident and many others have focused our attention on the important role all of us must play in road safety. A number of Deputies made points to which I would like to respond but do not have the time. Cameras will be introduced later this year and the selection of sites will be made in consultation with the Garda.

We can introduce the legislation, including cameras, random breath testing and penalty points, all of which I believe Members will support, but all road users have a responsibility to each other and should remember that our fate could be just around the next corner.

See this speech in context