Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 11 July 2023
559. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Justice the number of fatal road traffic accidents in each of the past five years and to date in 2023, where the deceased person or persons were under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the accident. [34401/23]
View answerRoad safety remains a high priority for An Garda Síochána and for my Department, working closely in cooperation with the Department of Transport. Any serious injury or fatality is of great concern.
As the Deputy will be aware, under the Garda Síochána Act 2005 (as amended), the Garda Commissioner is responsible for the administration and management of An Garda Síochána, including road traffic offences. As Minister, I have no direct role in such matters.
The Central Statistics Office (CSO), as the national statistical agency, is responsible for the compilation and publication of a number of tables including the number of road deaths (fatalities) and the number of injured (casualties) on the roads in Ireland between each year, based on information provided by the Roads Safety Authority of Ireland.
To be of assistance the CSO 'Road Fatalities' statistics can be accessed at data.cso.ie/table/ROA11 and 'Persons Injured' data.cso.ie/table/ROA12.
As the Deputy can appreciate An Garda Síochána are unable to conduct roadside testing for deceased and in some cases seriously injured people.
I am advised by the Garda authorities that for fatal road traffic incidents, a postmortem would more likely establish the presence of any intoxicants. I am further advised that such information is not recorded on the PULSE system and as a result An Garda Síochána are not in a position to reliably provide the information requested by the Deputy.
