On 21 November I launched a pre-Christmas road safety campaign which was organised by the National Safety Council in co-operation with the Garda. This will see a period of intensified enforcement and promotion of road safety focusing on the three key areas of drink driving, speeding and seat belt wearing in the lead up to the Christmas period.
The Government has set a target to reduce by 25% the number of fatal accidents occurring between the hours of 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. These accidents are commonly drink related. Information for 2000 shows a 17% reduction compared to 1997 in the number of fatal road accidents occurring between these hours.
The level of detection by the Garda Síochána for drink driving has been steadily increasing in recent years. The number of detections in 2000 at 10,433 represents a 24% increase on 1998. More than 10,700 drink driving detections were made to the end of October 2001.