The minister for transport Martin Cullen has stated his surprise at the decision by the head of the National Safety Council, Mr Eddie Shaw, to resign this week.
Eddie Shaw resigned the post he held for six years in a letter to Mr Cullen during the week.
He said that he had to take responsibility for failing to convince the Government to invest in its own policies on road safety.
A meeting with the minister on Thursday did nothing to change his mind.
Mr Cullen said he had to take responsibility for his failure to convince the government to invest in its own road safety policies.
Mr Cullen said earlier today that he had been surprised by the safety chief's decision to go, and that policy would have to be implemented.
However, Labour Party Transport spokesperson, Róisín Shortall blasted the Government saying the resignation was "a damning vote of no confidence in the Minster of Transport."
She said Mr Shaw had been "a constant and courageous voice in drawing attention to the woeful inadequacies in the government's approach to road safety ."
Ms Shortall said Mr Shaw's efforts to force the government to show some urgency in dealing with the carnage on the roads had been greeted with "no more than an indifferent shrug of the shoulders" from both the minister and the Taoiseach.
Just three months ago, she said, Mr Shaw had said there was no collective will in government to implement the penalty point system and claimed if the government had done what it promised to do on road safety , an average of 142 lives could be saved each year.
"If 142 lives were lost each year as a result of terrorism, it would be treated as a national crisis, yet the government response to the continuing loss of life on the roads has been weak and indecisive, said the TD.
She expressed deep regret at Mr Shaw's resignation, saying if there was an justice in the world, it would be Mr Cullen who was resigning.
"I only hope that Mr Shaw's resignation will shake Minister Cullen and the Taoiseach out of their complacency and that they will begin to treat road safety with the seriousness it deserves."