Áine Brady (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

I am taking this matter for the Minister for Transport, Deputy Dempsey, and thank Deputy Ferris for raising it.

The Minister for Transport has responsibility for overall policy and the provision of Exchequer funding for the national roads programme element of Transport 21. Section 17 of the Roads Act 1993, as amended states the National Roads Authority, NRA, has a general duty to secure the provision of a safe and efficient network of national roads. Section 19, which is even more specific, provides for the NRA to prepare or arrange for the preparation of construction of improvement works on these roads and to allocate funding to such works. The Minister, therefore, has no direct role or function in the matter of providing funding or issuing directions to the NRA to work on specific sections of our national road network.

The NRA has an ongoing annual programme of safety improvements to the national roads network based on accident statistic data. It funds an extensive programme of engineering works with the aim of improving road safety and dealing with known collision clusters, formerly known as black spots, on national roads.

Over the past five years, an annual average of 120 locations have been the subject of remedial measures. It is proposed to complete over 150 schemes this year. Prioritisation of safety related works is determined on a national basis by the NRA; again, the Minister for Transport has no role or function in the specifics of this work.

Since 1997 the Government has provided in excess of €15 billion to develop the national road network. In that time, the NRA has made considerable progress in bringing the network up to standard. The NRA is reviewing its investment plans for the national roads network. The review is being carried out based on a commitment in the renewed programme for Government and taking into account available capital resources. As the House will appreciate, progress on particular road schemes will be dependent on the availability of funds within a significantly reduced capital budget.

Road safety is a key priority for the Government and this commitment is underpinned by the road safety strategy, 2007 to 2012. The strategy's primary aim is to reduce road deaths to no greater than 60 fatalities per million of population by the end of 2012, which equates to an average of 21 road deaths per month or 252 deaths per year. In 2009, there was a total of 241 fatalities, an average of 20 per month. The emphasis now is on taking steps to ensure the good progress is continued for each of the remaining years of the strategy.

Responsibility for oversight of the implementation of the strategy rests with the Road Safety Authority, RSA, and involves participation from several Departments, An Garda Síochána and other agencies. Under the Road Safety Authority Act 2006 (Conferral of Functions) Order 2006, responsibility for the collection of information on road collisions lies with the RSA. Based on its statistics, the authority states road collisions are rarely caused by any one single factor. In most cases, collisions are caused by several factors, including human error in dealing with the driving conditions around which the collision occurred. According to the RSA road collision facts 2008, driver error is responsible for 90% of collisions, pedestrian error accounts for 6%, and road conditions account for 3%. It is obvious the personal responsibility of drivers plays a major role in road traffic collisions.

The RSA and An Garda Síochána recently rolled out the privatised safety cameras initiative to target speeding on all roads at all times of the day and night. The Minister for Transport understands the section of the N21 in question will be receiving ongoing attention from the new cameras at the direction of An Garda Síochána.

There is, of course, no acceptable number of road fatalities. The strategy, however, appears to be working. Road deaths dropped by nearly half between 1999 and 2009, inclusive. According to the third report of the European road safety performance index programme, run by the European Transport Safety Council, Ireland is now ranked sixth out of 27 EU member states in road deaths per million population. This compares well to our eighth position in 2001.

Unfortunately, there will be times when, no matter how good the roads are and no matter how strict the enforcement, the behaviour of the driver will be the determining factor as to whether an accident occurs and how serious it will be. As we get nearer to Christmas, and at a point where our accident statistics indicate we have reduced fatalities by a further 6% as against this time last year, I ask all drivers to slow down, take care and help to prevent further needless tragic loss of life.

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