Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In the Minister's response to my colleague, Deputy McConalogue, he talked about the strength of the Garda force and that it may be stronger than it might be if we had been in government. Notwithstanding his views in that regard, it is a fact that the level of enforcement of the law as it relates to road safety has been compromised in recent years. He spoke of the trends emerging this year in terms of deaths on our roads as being comparable in number to the same period last year. I have always made it clear that we must take these figures on a five-year average. It is the case that there was a significant increase of road fatalities last year and it appears that trend is continuing this year. While not wanting to get carried away with that particular metric, it is clear that a trend is emerging and it requires decisive action. It seems that road safety strategy is very well prepared and sets out all the right targets. Where we appear to be falling down is on the enforcement side. I trust that the Minister will engage, hopefully in a more favourable way, with the current Minister for Justice and Equality to achieve the appropriate level of investment in order that the road safety strategy, which we all support, can be implemented in full.

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