Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

The primary purpose and aim of the road safety action plan is to save lives and reduce injuries on our roads, by reducing fatalities to no more than 60 fatalities per million or 252 fatalities per year. This primary action of saving lives is supplemented by 125 other specific actions, designed to bring about the objective expressed in the primary action.

The strategy is being successfully implemented. Thankfully, we have seen a marked reduction in the number of people killed on our roads in 2007 and to date this year, despite the fact there has been a 40% increase in the number of drivers and a 70% increase in the number of vehicles on our roads over the ten years to 2007. According to the European Road Safety Performance Index, PIN, programme, Ireland is now ranked in the top ten best performing EU countries for road safety performance.

Action 83 of the strategy is for the Road Safety Authority to report to me each year on the implementation of the 126 actions in the strategy, all of which identify the lead agency responsible for implementation and a target implementation date. Both the Minister, Deputy Dempsey, and I have received that report and the authority has confirmed that all actions in the strategy identified for completion in 2007 have been completed in full. These include publication of a revised Rules of the Road, road safety awareness events, integration of RSA enforcement activity with An Garda Síochána and Customs and Excise and publication of various consultation documents, including one on compulsory training for motor cyclists. In the coming weeks we will bring that report to the Cabinet sub-committee on road safety which is chaired by the Minister, Deputy Dempsey. Subsequently, I envisage that the report will be publicly available.

It is of course the case that work has already begun on other actions in the strategy which have a longer timeframe for completion, for example, the introduction of a lower blood alcohol level for drivers — action No. 76 — which will be included as part of the road traffic and transport Bill, which we hope to see published early next year. Provisions relating to mandatory alcohol testing of drivers at collisions — action No. 75 — will also be included in that Bill.

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