Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

Gardaí and local authorities are aware of a number of accident blackspots, the elimination of which should be of paramount importance. We are making some progress in this area but more needs to be done. How often do we learn from news bulletins that people have been killed on roads on which fatal accidents previously occurred? Regardless of whether the blackspots are the responsibility of the National Roads Authority or local authorities, money should not be a factor in their elimination.

It is appalling that the Rules of the Road booklet has not been updated in the past ten years. The failure to update it reflects the complacent attitude taken on this issue.

With regard to Northern Ireland vehicles driving at speed in this jurisdiction, it is time that discussions are held with Northern Ireland officials to introduce an all-Ireland policy on road safety and ensure that penalty points apply in both jurisdictions. This common sense approach should be progressed at every possible level.

Drink driving is a major cause of road accidents. Last year, Garda figures revealed a 30% increase in the number of people convicted of drink driving. The culture of drink driving must change. We have heard a lot about random breath testing, which I believe is favoured by the vast majority of people in this country. However, Fine Gael obtained information from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform which reveals that only 64 Garda stations have intoxilisers, one-fifth of gardaí are trained to use roadside breathalysers and even fewer can use the evidential breathalyser equipment based in Garda stations. Under these circumstances, can the Government really claim to be serious about road safety?

These issues are indicative of what the former chairman of the National Safety Council claimed for years, namely that there is no joined-up thinking among Departments. I hope that will change because we will go nowhere otherwise. The Garda claims that since the introduction of the new penalty points scheme, 350 people per day have received penalty points. Enforcement is the key to any successful strategy and we must learn from best practice in places such as Victoria and other Australian states, otherwise we will continue to see carnage on our roads until we have proper enforcement.