Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

I agree that we need real-time evaluation. It would be better if that were the case. I am happy to say it is the Road Safety Authority's intention to introduce that. Unfortunately, it is picking up on how it was done in the past and wants to get the 2005 report out of the way. The RSA has been given full responsibility for the data collection. The report it commissioned from Dr. Bedford is extraordinary and provides for the first time the hard facts, rather than anecdotal evidence, and his analysis of much case history on the impact of alcohol abuse on deaths and injuries on our roads. The Road Safety Authority will do what the Deputy has suggested.

I was recently struck by how road accidents are reported in other jurisdictions. In another city recently I was struck by a news report at 8 a.m. which clearly stated that a person had been killed at midnight, only eight hours previously. I wonder what was the legal basis for that. The report was that a drunk driver who was at twice the legal alcohol limit killed a person at midnight. We do not have that kind of reporting and if we could find the legal base for it, that would put into the public domain the facts, without trying to apportion blame, on the causes of accidents. If an abuse of substances or the law is directly responsible for a person being killed or injured on our roads that should be stated on the news in this country.

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