Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I support my colleague, Deputy O'Dowd, and congratulate him on introducing this motion and persisting with this issue we have raised so often in the Chamber. We are all aware there is no room for complacency. The initial good effect of mandatory breath testing on reducing roads deaths has been eroded month after month.

The key to a successful and robust road safety policy is for it to be based on sound information about the cause of accidents. As a former party spokesperson on transport, I was horrified to find we have almost no such information. When I inquired how many learner drivers were involved in accident fatalities, I was told the figure was not available. This is an ad hoc approach based on an absence of information and it has to stop. At the very least, in our road death figures, we have the evidence that our policy is not working.

The Road Safety Authority has the will to change that approach but it does not have the means, unless we provide it. The result is the debate and, consequently, the policy focus on road safety, has lurched from blaming speed to drink, drugs, going too slowly, driver fatigue, mobile telephones, driver distraction, road design, road surfaces, the weather, and driver tuition or the lack of it, but there has been no forensic analysis based on hard information about where the real problem lies or the relative importance of any one element. It is ludicrous and downright irresponsible not to test for alcohol at the scene of an accident or as soon as possible thereafter. It is done in other countries and does not cause a delay in the administration of medical treatment. That is not an excuse for not introducing alcohol testing.

The previous Minister for Transport maintained the Garda had discretion to test for alcohol and that this was sufficient. We have the evidence that it is not enough. We know accidents have taken place where alcohol was a contributory factor but the Garda did not test for it. My concern is not to aid prosecutions, nor to aid insurance claims, but for us to gain robust data on which to build a road safety policy that works.

Prior to the last election the Government was dragged kicking and screaming to an acceptance that mandatory alcohol testing at the roadside was an important part of road safety. Having introduced this measure, surely it is nonsense that gardaí involved in mandatory alcohol testing must test all drivers for alcohol, including innocent ones who have not given any cause for suspicion or who may not even drink alcohol, yet they are not obliged to test people following an accident where there are manifest signs giving reason to believe alcohol is implicated? This is an inconsistent, illogical and unsustainable approach.

We must gather that kind of information about accidents and then we must collate it and make it usable and useful. Information on the status of licences is collected at the scene of an accident but then it is brought back to Garda stations and filed away where no use is ever made of it. We must have a national collection of these kinds of data and they must be collated and made available if we are to build a picture of what is the underlying cause of road deaths.

If the policies of the Road Safety Authority are to be successful and acceptable to the public, and if they are to have the authority of logic, they must be based on real information. Speculating about the cause of accidents has no place in road safety strategy. Knee-jerk reactions in response to individual road accidents do not work either. Resistance to this simple and utterly reasonable measure has defied logic and understanding. It is a good day's work for Fine Gael and democratic politics if we can change the Minister's mind on this matter. I hope his announcement today is based on fact and is not another empty promise.

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