Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 29: To ask the Minister for Transport the commitments from the road safety strategy that have been implemented to date in 2009; the commitments that remain to be implemented; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45998/09]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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The road safety strategy 2007-12 is being successfully implemented across a range of agencies. We have seen a sustained reduction in the number of people killed on our roads. The core objective of the road safety strategy is to reduce road deaths to no greater than 60 fatalities per million population by the end of 2012. This is an average of 21 road deaths per month or 252 deaths per annum.

The year 2008 saw the lowest number of road deaths on record at 279, despite the large increase in the number of drivers and vehicles on our roads in recent years. As at this morning, there have been 225 road deaths so far in 2009. This is 40 fewer than for the same period in 2008. It is important to maintain the momentum in road safety measures, as each fatality and serious injury is a tragedy for families, friends and communities.

The Road Safety Authority's report to me on the implementation of the 126 actions in the strategy in 2008 is being finalised but it is clear that substantial progress has been made. Many of the actions for that year are completed and substantial progress has been made on the majority of the rest. Work has also begun on other longer-term actions in the strategy. With regard to my Department's 2009 actions, five have been completed and five are in hand. Two of these are included in the Road Traffic Bill 2009 published on 30 October 2009, that is, lowering the blood alcohol concentration, BAC, levels and providing for preliminary impairment testing.

The road safety strategy is challenging and ambitious and even when target dates are missed, we must not lose sight of the underlying achievement. Fatalities on our roads have fallen significantly and people are alive today that might be not otherwise be.

Shane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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We are coming close to budget time and the compliments from this side of the House to the other side may be few and far between but I take this opportunity to congratulate the Minister, Gay Byrne and Noel Brett on their commitment to road safety over the past two or three years. The figures are there to prove it. Will the Minister seek to ensure that every county council appoints a full-time road safety officer? That is part of the strategy and has been very successful in my county and in Deputy McHugh's, where young people are educated by them.

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for his acknowledgement. I am sure he will not mind if I extend the congratulations to all the other agencies involved. He has been very supportive in the past of the enforcement levels by the gardaí. Much of what has been achieved has been achieved by the agencies, the enforcement agencies, education, etc., but also by motorists becoming much more responsible in what they do.

My ambition is that we have road safety officers. I have first-hand experience, as has the Deputy, of how effective that can be in local authorities. I am not sure how many local authorities have them because it is under the aegis of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. I know quite a few have appointed road safety officers. At one stage, I wrote to try to ensure-----

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I call Deputy Broughan for a brief supplementary question.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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Before we go to war at 3.45 p.m. I join Deputy McEntee in commending the Minister on the work that has been done on road safety and also the chief executive, Noel Brett, and the chairperson, Gay Byrne, of the Road Safety Authority.

I wish to ask a question on targets which have been missed. Compulsory education and training for new motorcyclists was supposed to be in place approximately a year and half ago. That has still not been achieved. Of the 230 or 240 people who have tragically died on our roads, 26 or 27 were motorcyclists.

Where are the speed cameras? A deal was done with GoSafe to provide 6,000 hours of speed camera checks per month. Why are we waiting for them? Every time we ask a parliamentary question on it, it is referred to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

I refer to the Road Traffic Bill. As the Minister knows, Susan Gray, a tireless campaigner for road safety, has raised issues in regard to mandatory testing. She believes the Bill, as formulated, will be problematic. Perhaps the Minister might look again at the mandatory testing area, which needs to be urgently implemented.

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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We will have an opportunity to talk about mandatory testing as the Bill goes through the House. As Deputies will be aware, this has been in gestation for some time but it was not only this issue that delayed the publication of the Bill. We had to try to get this right and strike a balance between the need to do mandatory alcohol testing at the scene of an accident and the need to ensure we would not cause death or serious injury by delaying getting a person to hospital. So far nobody has come up with a better suggestion that is workable. We can come up with all sorts of suggestions but they may not be workable, feasible, constitutionally possible or whatever. If somebody comes up with a better idea which is constitutionally and legally feasible, I will certainly consider that. Currently, this is as far as we can go in this regard.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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What about motorcycles and speed cameras?

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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I will have to check in regard to motorcyclists. Motorcyclists comprise 2% of the traffic but comprise 12% of road fatalities. It is a serious concern. I believe the Road Safety Authority has completed consultations and that it is now a matter for the Department to finalise some statutory instrument in that regard. As Deputy Broughan rightly said, speed cameras are a matter for the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. It is no secret that we indicated they will be rolled out, in place and operational for 6,000 hours per month by the middle of next year.

Ulick Burke (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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Has the Minister committed to provide funding to the counties seriously affected by flooding and where serious damage was done to county roads and primary routes. The flooding was particularly severe throughout County Galway.

I refer to the very serious and tragic accident on the Ballindine-Milltown road, the N17, in which four young people were killed. Representations to have improvements made to that stretch of road have been made for 15 years but nothing has been done - hence we had a tragedy there. I plead with the Minister to co-ordinate all the agencies responsible, but which are denying responsibility, to do something on this issue.

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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The questions are tangentially related to the original question. I have not received any reports from Galway on the damage done to roads. The flooding we saw on television will have had an effect. As I said in response to a previous parliamentary question, we will look at that when it comes in. Local authorities are directly responsible for repairing roads. We supplement the grants they make available.

The N17 is part of the national road network. We have made commitments to do a huge amount of work with public private partnership and to replace much of that road. The funding is being provided as necessary for that and it will advance.