Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I fundamentally agree. We have all been shocked by the recent loss of life on our roads and concerned by the worrying increase in road fatalities after many years of progress in making our roads safer. I have always given great credit to the former Minister, Noel Dempsey, who took on a lot of opposition in the House when he brought in some fundamental measures recommended by the Road Safety Authority, which ultimately led to a substantial decline in road fatalities and injuries. Part of that was the whole drunk driving law phenomenon. People may look surprised but at the time there was a lot of opposition to all that. People are very taken aback post-Covid that there has been an increase in road fatalities and injuries. I would like to understand the Deputy's proposal in terms of a road safety commissioner vis-à-vis the Road Safety Authority and the relationship between the two, before I would commit to it.

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