Noel Coonan (Tipperary North, Fine Gael)
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Question 63: To ask the Minister for Transport the progress to date on the National Road Safety Strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5941/09]

Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 99: To ask the Minister for Transport the actions under the Road Safety Strategy 2007 to 2012 which have missed their deadlines; the reason these key deadlines have been missed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5827/09]

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 63 and 99 together.

The Road Safety Strategy 2007-2012 was prepared by the Road Safety Authority, approved by the Government and launched in October 2007. Its overall objective, through a combination of education, enforcement and engineering actions, is to save lives and prevent serious injuries, thereby bringing Ireland in line with best practice countries in road safety terms.

The Strategy is being successfully implemented across a range of agencies. We have seen a sustained reduction in the number of people killed on our roads. 2008 saw the lowest number of road deaths on record at 279, despite the fact there has been a 40 per cent increase in the number of drivers and a 70 per cent increase in the number of vehicles on our roads. Of course 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. According to the European Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) programme, which is run by the European Transport Safety Council, (ETSC), Ireland is now ranked in the top ten best performing EU countries for road safety performance.

Action 83 of the Strategy requires the Road Safety Authority (RSA) to report to me by the end of the second quarter of each year on the implementation of the 126 actions in the Strategy, all of which identify the lead agency responsible for implementation and a target implementation date. The Authority has confirmed that all actions in the Strategy identified for completion in 2007 have been completed in full. These include publication of a revised Rules of the Road, road safety awareness events, integration of RSA enforcement activity with An Garda Síochána, Customs and the HSA, and publication of various consultation documents including one on compulsory training for motor cyclists.

The report for the year 2008 will be presented to me in June of this year. However it is clear from communication with the RSA that substantial progress has been made on the annual Actions and those specifically for 2008. More than half have been completed and substantial progress has been made on the majority of the rest.

It is of course the case that work has already begun on other actions in the Strategy which have a longer timeframe for completion, for example in the case of my Department the introduction of a lower blood alcohol level for drivers (Action No. 76), with a target date of 2nd Quarter 2009. This will form part of the Road Traffic and Transport Bill, which I hope to see published in the coming months, as will provisions relating to mandatory alcohol testing of drivers at collisions (Action No. 75) and to driving under the influence of drugs (Action No. 78).

It may be the case, over the course of an ambitious and challenging Road Safety Strategy, that some of the target dates are missed, even where work on the Actions themselves is underway, but we must not lose sight of the underlying achievement: road fatalities are falling and substantial progress is being made on all the key issues in relation to the safety of road users.