One senior Garda yesterday acknowledged that speeding by official Government cars may be within the letter of the law, but not the spirit.
However, some 41 per cent of road deaths are caused by speeding, and its reduction is a central pillar of both EU and Government policy to reduce road deaths by 20 per cent per year for the five years from 1998.
The Government document, published in response to the EU directive to reduce road deaths, said speeding was "the primary contributory action in fatal accidents involving at least one driver".
The Government 1998 strategy document to reduce road deaths, The Road To Safety, stated as its first target a 50 per cent reduction in the incidence of speeding between 1998 and 2002.
The report states: "International research now concurs that excessive and inappropriate speed is at the core of the road accident problem because higher speed reduces the time available to avoid collision, and makes the impact in a collision more severe."
Analysis carried out by the National Roads Authority found that, in 1997, 40 per cent of cars were exceeding the 60 m.p.h. speed limit on rural sections of two-lane national routes.
However, some of the key elements of the strategy document, including the installation of a high-powered computer system to handle fines and endorsements for which £6 million was to be provided in 1998, have not materialised.
Introducing the report on July 31st, 1998, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said the level of road deaths in the State amounted to "an unacceptable social problem that has to be tackled immediately".
As Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr O'Donoghue has responsibility for all traffic-related activity within the Garda.
In its recently published report for 1999, the Garda National Traffic Bureau pointed out that the Government target of a 20 per cent reduction in road deaths between 1998 and 1999 had not been achieved. The actual reduction had been 12.5 per cent.
During 1999 the Garda issued 178,009 on-the-spot fines for excessive speeding offences. However, it appeared yesterday that although there might be an internal inquiry, the Garda officer driving Mr O'Donoghue's wife and children would not face prosecution.
The 1961 and 1963 road traffic laws and by-laws provide legal cover for gardai to break speed limits and traffic laws and to park illegally as long as they are legally authorised or have reasonable excuse. This applies to gardai driving government ministers in official cars even when there is no emergency.
The law provides gardai with the right to pursue dangerous drivers or escaping robbers or to rush to the scene of an emergency. Likewise, ambulance and fire-engine drivers can break traffic laws.
As part of their training, Garda drivers are taught to drive and overtake at maximum speed on open roads. All official drivers attached to Garda headquarters who drive government ministers are qualified to drive at speed. Both the drivers and the Mercedes cars provided for ministers are capable of reaching 100 m.p.h.
The issue of speeding by Garda vehicles is, however, a contentious issue. Only about half of the gardai on the force have completed the official driving course and most drive squad cars under an ad-hoc system known as driving under "chief's permission".
In a Dail reply to the Fine Gael spokesman on justice, Mr Jim Higgins, on June 7th this year, the Minister, Mr O'Donoghue, said that while 4,667 gardai had completed the official Garda driving course, some 2,646 were driving on the permission of chief superintendents without having completed the course.
Three young gardai have died in the past two years while driving squad cars at speed on "chief's permission".