Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 67: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will conduct an audit of the number of road deaths associated with temporary road surfaces and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21214/05]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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I am informed by the Garda authorities that the National Roads Authority, which falls within the area of responsibility of my colleague the Minister for Transport, is the agency responsible for recording statistics in relation to road traffic collisions, based on information provided by the Garda Síochána. The authority publishes these statistics in its annual road traffic facts reports. The most recent report relates to 2003 and indicates that there were a total of 301 fatal collisions and 5,684 injury collisions in that year. The statistics show that the condition of the road is a contributory factor in 2.8% of fatal and injury collisions, where contributory factors are specified. The reports, however, do not contain details of collisions which occur specifically on temporary road surfaces.

The National Roads Authority, in conjunction with local authorities, operates a programme where accident locations on the national road network are investigated and, if the road condition is believed to have been a factor, appropriate engineering measures are put in place to improve the situation.

In addition, as part of its work on road safety the National Roads Authority has, since early 2001, incorporated a road safety audit procedure into the design standards for national roads. Road safety audits involve the evaluation of road schemes during design and construction and aims to prevent crashes occurring on a new road scheme, rather than trying to improve the situation after crashes have taken place.