Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent)
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147. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport given the level of fatalities on the public road network, with an especially high number in January 2024 already, if road safety enforcement is the responsibility of An Garda Síochána, the motor insurance industry or the Government; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2113/24]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The current framework for road safety is set out in the Government’s fifth Road Safety Strategy 2021-2030. Delivery of Phase 1 and subsequent phases of the strategy is only possible through the close collaboration of a range of road safety partners, including other the Department of Transport, the Department of Justice, An Garda Siochana, the Road Safety Authority, the Medical Bureau of Road Safety, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, the National Transport Authority and local authorities. Road safety experts are working together to deliver the Strategy which has the ambitious target of reducing road deaths and serious injuries by 50% by 2030, and to achieve Vision Zero on Irish roads by 2050.

Complementing the Strategy, the Road Traffic and Roads Act 2023 was signed into law in June and the Road Traffic Measures Bill 2023 was approved by Government in December. The Bill is a concise and focused piece of legislation which will address a number of key areas, including introducing safer default speed limits on national secondary roads, local/rural roads and in built up areas, introducing mandatory drug testing at the scene of serious traffic collisions, and reforming the penalty points system so motorists receive multiple sets of penalty points where multiple offences are committed.

Furthermore, and in response to the rising trend in fatalities through 2023, last October my Department conveyed sanction for the Road Safety Authority to spend €5.6m on increased public awareness campaigns in the latter part of 2023 and beginning 2024 and on commencing a review of the driver testing curriculum to ensure learners are appropriately equipped to deal with issues they might encounter on the roads.

As the Deputy is aware, road traffic legislation is enforced by An Garda Síochána and enforcement is therefore an operational matter for the Garda Commissioner, under the aegis of the Department of Justice.