Shane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

In the period between 1 January 2001 and 31 December 2007, there was just one month in which the number of road fatalities was lower than 20. There have already been four such months in 2008. As Fine Gael's spokesman on road safety, I congratulate everyone, including the Ministers and Ministers of State and the officials from the Road Safety Authority, who contributed to this decrease. Long may it continue. I hope there will be fewer than 20 road fatalities every month by the time the Minister for Transport leaves office. I am sure he is not going to Europe and that he will stay with us for the next four years. I do not believe what I see in the newspapers in that regard. I congratulate everyone involved in the welcome decline in road deaths throughout the country. It has not happened by chance. Decisions had to be made and laws had to be implemented. While the figures are decreasing, there is further room for improvement.

There were 18 fatalities on our roads in September. I visited the home of one of those victims before I came to the House this morning and it brought me back down to earth after last night's events. A 23 year old man, Mr. Galligan, was killed. His two week old child was sitting beside his coffin before it left the house. That brought me down to earth and back to my own brief. I am not too worried about other things.

I reiterate that while we are moving in the right direction, there is room for improvement. I would like the Minister to consider a few proposals. The Joint Committee on Transport is proposing a joint approach in this regard. It has asked Mr. Noel Brett of the Road Safety Authority to pursue the possibility of developing off-road training centres throughout the country. As Fine Gael's spokesman on road safety, I brought this idea to the schools three years ago and it has become a reality in County Kildare. I have met Mr. Brett and several other people from counties like Kerry, Wexford and Galway, and some of them do not seem to want to take the steps necessary to develop this idea. Motorcyclists and lorry drivers are legally required to go to training centres, but ordinary motorists do not have to do so, for some unknown reason. I ask the Minister and the Ministers of State to attend the meeting of the joint committee at which this matter will be discussed.

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