Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak on and support this Bill. It is timely to focus on issues that are brought to mind on a daily basis. Throughout the country serious accidents often take place that cause us to ask why they occurred.

Over recent years, I have asked repeatedly by means of parliamentary question for an explanation of the reason we do not have some correlation of reports from the Garda, hospitals, ambulance services, fire services and all the constituent bodies who make important reports as a result of accidents. Some years ago, a serious accident that occurred not far from the Minister's constituency came to my attention, but to date nobody knows what caused it. We will never know because there has been no correlation of the reports. This serious flaw in our system has existed for years.

Deputy Olivia Mitchell pointed out that until we know the cause of an accident, we will not be in a position to resolve the type of problems we are discussing. Accidents can be caused by road camber, road fault, car fault, driver fatigue, alcohol, drugs, etc. Will the Minister please ensure that correlation takes place in the future? If it is not done, we will continue to have accidents.

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