Vol. 526 No. 1
235 Mr. Broughan asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if, in view of the ongoing terrible injuries and fatalities on Irish roads and streets, he will give consideration to requesting the Government to establish a separate traffic police corps or highway patrol for motorways and national roads where large numbers of motorists seem to continuously break the speed limits. [21240/00]
I welcome the fact that the Government's National Strategy on Road Safety 1998-02, which aims to reduce Irish road fatalities by a minimum of 20% on their 1997 level, is working. Provisional data for 1999 shows a continued downward trend towards the primary target of the strategy.
Despite the encouraging continued downward trend the Government accepts that our road fatality and serious injury rate is still unacceptably high and is determined that all the provisions of the national strategy are implemented in full. The strategy is monitored by the high level group on road safety which is chaired by the Department of the Environment and Local Government. Two progress reports have been published by the high level group and I understand that copies were circulated to all Deputies and are available in the Oireachtas Library.
I am informed by the Garda authorities that the provisional figure for the number of road fatalities for the year 2000 as of 14 November 2000 is 355. The figure for the corresponding period in 1999 was 370. This continued downward trend has to be viewed in the context of the significant increases in the number of vehicles on our roads since 1997.
As the Deputy is aware, the Garda co-operate with the relevant agencies in trying to reduce the number of accidents on our roads and increased enforcement of road traffic legislation is one of the key elements of the strategy. The enforcement of road traffic legislation is given a high priority by the Garda and I am assured by the Garda authorities that this policy will continue.
With regard to Garda enforcement, in relation to speeding, in 1999, a total of 178,009 fines on the spot were issued and, in addition, there were 30,105 prosecutions for speeding offences. In the year 2000 up to 6 November a total of 188,005 fines on the spot for speeding were issued by the Garda.
