Breeda Moynihan-Cronin (Kerry South, Labour)
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Question 50: To ask the Minister for Transport if his attention has been drawn to the fact that local authorities have yet to receive guidelines for introduction of the new 30 km/h speed limit from his Department; the reasons for the delay; if he will expedite this matter as soon as possible; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9718/05]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The Road Traffic Act 2004 was enacted on 22 December 2004. Section 9 of this Act came into effect on 20 January 2005 and sets out a new process for the making of speed limit by-laws by the elected members of county and city councils following the changeover to metric speed limits.

The 2004 Act also provides that the Minister for Transport may issue guidelines relating to the making of special speed limit by-laws. Draft guidelines to assist the local authorities were forwarded to representatives of the county and city managers association, the National Roads Authority, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the Garda Síochána for their views. In addition, my Department engaged in a consultation process with county and city councils on the draft guidelines during February and March. That process has been completed and the guidelines are being amended to reflect the views submitted to my Department. I will the statutory guidelines to the local authorities on a formal basis very shortly.

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The aim of EuroRAP is to improve road safety by assessing risks and identifying shortcomings on national road networks across Europe that can be addressed with practical road improvement measures. This is a commendable goal and I therefore welcome the publication of its recent report on the state of Ireland's major national roads. I note that the NRA made a very substantial contribution to the preparation of this report.

The EuroRAP report found that the safety performance of the Irish major road network is broadly the same as other countries they have studied, such as the Netherlands, Britain and Sweden. The average fatal collision rate on Ireland's motorways shows that they are about as safe as those in Britain. The British rate is only slightly higher than that in Sweden and the Netherlands, but all are lower than the rate in Spain.

In general the safest types of roads are motorways but, because there are currently relatively fewer miles of motorway in Ireland than in other countries, there are fewer sections of the safest category or low risk road in Ireland than in the other countries studied. However, this will change with the substantial investment being made in improving our national road network over the next few years. Over €8 billion will be spent on the network over the period 2005-09. I expect there to be a very significant road safety dividend associated with this increased investment.

Furthermore, the NRA is already working on addressing many of the specific deficiencies identified by the EuroRAP report. This year alone almost €54 million will be spent by the NRA on road maintenance and €40 million will be spent on a range of road safety measures.

However, I must emphasise that behavioural issues and not road conditions continue to be the single biggest contributory factor to road collisions. Analysis of factors contributing to fatal and injury accidents in 2002 indicate that the key contributory factors are driver behaviour, comprising 86%, and pedestrian behaviour, comprising9.7%, whereas road factors were identified as contributory factors in only 2.5% of fatal and serious accident collisions.