Hundreds of additional gardaí will be deployed on traffic duties as part of a renewed Government effort to reduce the rising rate of road traffic accidents, the Minister for Justice said yesterday.
Mr McDowell also said the Garda had agreed to introduce a campaign which will target drivers on weekend nights, the most dangerous time on the roads.
The Minister is also finalising plans to establish a specific road traffic corps within the next three years in a measure which he said will "transform" the enforcement of the traffic laws.
This will involve the deployment of hundreds of additional gardaí on traffic duties, from the current level of 520.
With the number of road deaths so far in 2004 rising this week to 292, Mr McDowell was speaking outside a "summit" convened by the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, to discuss ways of cutting the accident rate.
He will soon bring to the Government plans to considerably increase the strength of the Garda, from the current level of about 12,200. While this would happen in the next 18 months to two years, he said, a "very significant" number of new gardaí would be engaged on traffic duties.
However, he said the force would also take a "raft" of immediate measures to intensify its enforcement of traffic laws. There was determination among senior gardaí to engage in high-visibility enforcement and he expressed confidence that the new pre-Christmas campaign would soon bring "very significant results".
"It's high visibility but we're going to engage in low-visibility tactics as well. In the past we had unmarked cars which were able to detect very serious infringements of the law so we're going to have a combination of both in the future," he said.
"I think that people who go to nightclubs and who drive under the influence of drink or drugs should be conscious of the fact that just because they go home by smaller roads they may have some unpleasant surprises."
The summit in Government Buildings was attended by representatives from each of the main road safety bodies and the Garda Commissioner, Mr Noel Conroy.
"As circumstances change we have to change with our enforcement," Mr Conroy said. "We have our people very much focused on what's happening there on the roads. Naturally enough we're focusing on secondary roads, where there are lots and lots of collisions taking place."
Mr McDowell said Chief Supt John Farrelly, currently head of the Garda Press Office, will lead the traffic division from next Monday.
While the Minister's plan to increase the strength of the force will create a special road traffic corps, that section will not be separate from the main Garda force. Mr McDowell said he did not want a situation where gardaí not on specific traffic duty did not regard the area as part of their overall responsibility.
"There will be a new Garda campaign between now and Christmas to emphasise on an ongoing basis that the new points system is in operation, that the danger of being detected will be increased very dramatically for offenders," Mr McDowell said.
"The Minister for Transport is bringing to the Dáil his legislation to introduce random breath-testing, to introduce administrative disqualification for drunk-driving." The summit was convened after nine people died in accidents in a single weekend earlier this month.
Mr Brennan said: "We've had a very good record of road safety in the last couple of years. The average was over 400 \ for most of the last 10 years and now its down considerably, even though we've had a setback in recent weeks."
