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

Behaviour is at the centre of this. The Deputy referenced an earlier era, although we sometimes look back with rose-tinted glasses at the seventies and so on. More people were killed on our roads then, when there were far fewer cars, than today, which speaks to that era and its lack of proactive safety measures. That is why what we did in the late nineties and early 2000s in particular, when Noel Dempsey was Minister, had impact. We need to rediscover that.

There is a drugs issue. Deputy Chambers, when he was Minister of State at the Department of Transport, moved on that as regards mandatory drug testing. That is increasingly happening in parallel with alcohol, which is as prevalent an issue now as it was in earlier eras, and is impacting on road safety. All levels, including human behaviour, An Garda Síochána, strengthening the legislation on limits, and the national road safety camera framework and so forth, are required to get these numbers down. We will continue to work on that. I thank the Deputy for raising the issue.

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