The Republic has one of the worst records in Europe for reducing road deaths in the past five years, according to the European Commission.
New figures published by the commission yesterday show the Republic ranks 23rd out of 25 EU states for reducing road deaths between 2001 and 2006. Over the past five years, the number of road deaths in the Republic has fallen by just 0.8 per cent, despite the introduction of the penalty points system.
Only Malta and Lithuania recorded a worse performance, with the number of people dying on the roads up by 8.3 per cent and 10 per cent respectively in those countries. In comparison, France managed to cut the number of road deaths by 41.8 per cent while Finland reduced fatalities by 33 per cent.
The statistics released by the commission are based on the number of road deaths in EU states between January 2001 and September 2006. For the final three months of 2006 the commission used projections based on previous performance.
The poor performance recorded by the Republic in 2005 and in the first nine months of 2006 comes despite indications in September from Minister for Transport Martin Cullen that the situation had improved.
Following publication of a separate survey monitoring road deaths in Europe between 2001 and 2005, Mr Cullen said that report was out of date. "My understanding is that it doesn't pick up on 2005 and 2006. We have changed dramatically in those two years with the national Road Safety Authority being set up, with all the mandatory alcohol testing brought in, all the new legislation, all the new policy," Mr Cullen told reporters. "So I would expect a fairly dramatic change in Ireland's position when the next one is done, probably next year."
However, the new figures published by the commission yesterday show that over the past 12 months the situation on the Republic's roads has got worse.
From the end of September 2005 to the end of September 2006, there were 409 deaths recorded on the Republic's roads, which amounted to a 9 per cent increase on the same period the previous year.
During the same period, Malta recorded 17 deaths, a 33 per cent increase, while Lithuania recorded 781 deaths, a rise of 4 per cent, according to the commission. France recorded a 14 per cent fall to 4,844 deaths.
EU transport commissioner Jacques Barrot told journalists that the poor performance on road safety in the Republic was due to the poor condition of the roads in many parts of the State. But he said the overall EU trend was positive, with an 8 per cent fall in deaths in the year between autumn 2005 and autumn 2006.
Across all 25 EU member states in 2005, more than 41,000 people died in road accidents. In 2001 the commission set a target to cut the number of road deaths in half by 2010 to about 25,000. At a conference on road safety in Italy yesterday, Mr Barrot said it was still possible to meet this goal.