Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Dooley for raising this matter. I will address each of his points in turn having regard to the very valuable research published today in The Irish Timesby Carl O'Brien. I read it this morning. I will answer some of the questions the Deputy has put to me on the resources available to An Garda Síochána and other bodies concerned with road safety. Before doing so, I will set out the context. The penalty points system has worked well since its introduction in 2002. As the Deputy will be aware, over 70% of those who receive a fixed-charge notice pay the specified amount within 28 days. The main objective of the system is not to penalise people but to make them more aware of unsafe driving behaviour and to influence and change their behaviour. The year 2012 marked the tenth anniversary of the system. The review of the system at that landmark point resulted in the making of recommendations for the introduction of new offences and for changes to the number of penalty points to be applied to certain road traffic offences. When the review was completed, it was forwarded to the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications. This led to some very important and helpful changes, which were signed into law last year through the Road Traffic Act 2014. The penalty points proposals in the Act represent the product of significant consideration and input from a wide variety of people and organisations. The offences for which penalty points were increased include speeding, driving while holding a mobile phone and dangerous overtaking.

The number of deaths on our roads is of major concern, particularly in the context of the increase in fatalities in 2013 in 2014, which marked the first increases in fatalities since 2005. We are well aware that the main causes of road crashes are distraction, excessive and inappropriate speed, intoxication and fatigue. We are examining these areas on an ongoing basis to identify measures that can be taken to address the causes of loss of life and injury on our roads.

There is no single reason that can be identified for the increase in road deaths in the past two years. Older and younger pedestrians are the most vulnerable. According to statistics produced by the RSA, urban roads are the most dangerous, with crossing the road emerging as the most dangerous situational factor. For these reasons, we need to treat statistics in this area with some degree of care. That said, the body of analysis assembled by Mr. O'Brien in The Irish Timestoday is very valuable and has led to an action step. I had discussions with the Road Safety Authority on this work today.

I must point out a potential flaw in the analysis while by no means seeking to denigrate the work in any manner because it leads to some points I want to consider further. One aspect of care that we should take on board is that the points data, although broken down by county, do not correspond to where the original road traffic offences actually took place. The points data just state where the driver is domiciled. Therefore, it is not possible at this stage to state definitively that points awarded in a specific county have been incurred while committing an offence in that county.

To use the Deputy's example, a driver may have been detected committing an offence in Dublin but, because the address on his or her licence is in County Clare, where the authority originally issued the licence, the points will be attributed to County Clare.

An Garda Síochána is committed to continuing to work closely with all road safety agencies to target enforcement in areas where fatalities are more likely to occur. I spoke to the road traffic authority about the conclusions developed by Mr. O'Brien in today's edition of The Irish Timesand I have asked for these to be examined further to see if there are any insights which can be used in our efforts to make our roads safer.

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