Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if the new road safety strategy will be introduced in March; the main themes of the proposed new strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5207/13]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Road Safety Authority is in the process of preparing the next Road Safety Strategy, which will cover an 8 year period from 2013 to 2020.  The aim of the Strategy, like all previous, will be to save lives and prevent injuries by reducing the number and severity of collisions on our roads.  

 The new Strategy will adopt a safe system approach by reinforcing the concept of shared responsibility across organisations, businesses and communities.  The Strategy will outline a number of Actions to be taken in furthering the cause of road safety and will assign responsibility for implementation of these Actions to the most appropriate State bodies.  The detail of the Actions have not yet been finalised.

In general, the new Strategy, while not deflecting attention from road fatalities, will concentrate to a significant extent on serious injuries caused by road collisions.  

When the final draft is received from the RSA, I will seek Government approval for the new Strategy and I plan formally to launch it at a road safety conference to be held during Ireland's Presidency of the EU at the end of March 2013.