Cyprian Brady (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister to the House and the opportunity to speak on the motion. All road users, be they car drivers, cyclists or pedestrians, have a personal responsibility for the actions they take, a point made earlier in the debate.

The Minister outlined the road safety strategies that have been put in place, which focus on education, enforcement, engineering and legislation. It is widely accepted that bad roads contribute to road accidents in a major way. The upgrading of roads has been quite successful and a priority for the Government under the national development plan. It is essential that in attempting to increase safety on our roads we examine the question of upgrading roads. An audit of suburban roads should be done as a matter of urgency. It is not only in rural areas that we have potholes. In many estates throughout the city there are major problems. There are problems also in terms of the non-conformity of road ramps and road markings wearing out quickly. All those issues contribute to the debate on road safety.

Senators mentioned the smooth transition from miles per hour to metric values. That is a great example of the way an initiative can be properly signalled, with information given to the public and a time limit imposed and properly implemented.

There have been numerous attempts to change road users' behaviour over the years. The reduction in deaths within a certain timeframe that the Minister mentioned in his contribution is without doubt due to the measures that were taken, including the introduction of the penalty points system, but no one measure will solve these problems. The introduction of the Garda traffic corps, the ring-fencing of funding and the appointment of an assistant commissioner to head the traffic corps are welcome initiatives. The targeting of resources on information campaigns have proved to be extremely successful over the years. I am sure we can all rhyme off the green cross code at this stage and that is due to information videos and television advertisements.

We must have better traffic management. Traffic jams lead to frustration and frustration leads to bad driving, which in turn leads to accidents. With the increase in the volume of cars on our roads over recent years we need a more free-flowing, driver orientated traffic management system. In fairness to Dublin City Council, it has put major resources into the management of traffic around the city, which I have no doubt has contributed to a reduction in the number of accidents. Issues such as signage, road markings and lighting are hugely important when it comes to traffic.

All of those measures must be taken as a whole. There is not one solution to this problem. It takes a comprehensive, co-ordinated effort and the Minister and the Department are implementing that.