Deirdre Clune (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I congratulate and thank PARC for continuously campaigning on this issue and bringing it to the attention of the House. They received a strong commitment from the Taoiseach prior to the election and I hope this Fine Gael motion will pre-empt the initiation of legislation in this area.

Not a week goes by where we do not hear about people who are maimed on the roads. In fact, we can become too complacent about it. It is rare for such accidents to make front-page news now but every story destroys a family, and often more than one family. Any of us who hears of accidents occurring late at night or early in the morning always wonders if there was alcohol or some form of drugs involved.

The European Transport Safety Council's Road Safety Performance Index, which tracks road deaths from 2001 to 2006, ranks Ireland 20th out of 29 states. Irish road deaths have fallen by only 10% since 2001, less than half the European average of 22%. Luxembourg's reduction of almost 50% has been put down to the priority that its government has given to road safety and the tough new laws allowing on-the-spot withdrawal of driving licence by police in cases of serious drink driving or speeding. France's reduction of over 40% was partly due to its fully automated speed-control system, including 1,100 fixed speed cameras, which saw a doubling of speed detections. If we are to have any hope of dealing with this national crisis, we must learn from the success of others. We need the Government to prove that it is committed to reducing road deaths, as the governments of countries such as France and Luxembourg have proven themselves to be.

For many years we have discussed drink driving as a cause for motor accidents but the issue of drug driving has never been addressed. The recent crime debate has proven that drugs are now freely available in our society and it is time we faced up to their involvement in motor accidents. In 2006, the Europe Against Drugs report focused on cannabis and included interesting facts which should be of concern to us all. A study by Stanford University in California on the effects of the use of small doses of cannabis on pilots found that 24 hours after taking such drugs, pilots were still affected. The report indicated that someone smoking a joint should not drive or pilot an aircraft the following day. A Canadian report found that of 1,100 fatally injured drivers, 225 pedestrians——

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