A progress report on the Government's road safety strategy shows an increase in road deaths last year, but fewer fatalities overall since the plan was launched in 1998.
Although there were two more deaths on Irish roads last year than the 413 in 1999, the third annual report said fatalities had been reduced by 12 per cent overall since 1998.
The primary target of the four-year Department of the Environment strategy was to reduce road deaths and serious injuries by at least a fifth of 1997's level by next year.
Today's report contained "good news and bad news" on that front, a spokesman said. The 20 per cent reduction in road deaths had not yet been achieved, he said. There were 472 deaths on the road in 1997. This figure was 415 last year.
However, the spokesman said the target of a 20 per cent drop in the number of serious injuries, from 2,182 in 1997, had been met and surpassed. There had been a drop of around 25 per cent by last year, he said.
There have been 221 road deaths this year so far, including the five Curtis family members who died following an accident in Monaghan last Tuesday.
The report said gardai gave more than 224,000 on-the-spot fines for speeding last year and 165,000 to June this year.
A Garda spokesman said details of a new road safety campaign would be issued by the Garda National Traffic Bureau this week. Last week the Minister of State for the Environment, Mr Bobby Molloy, launched a safer driving campaign that urged people to appoint a designated driver when they go drinking.
The Irish Insurance Federation has called on the Government to increase State funding to combat Ireland's "horrific" road safety record.
The federation's chief executive, Mr Michael Kemp, said funding co-ordination at Government level was a "prerequisite" to an improved national road safety record. "Co-ordinated funding of road safety promotion, enforcement of road traffic law and road engineering measures must be seen as an investment in our citizens' welfare rather than a drain on State resources," he said.
Mr Kemp said an analysis by Dr Peter Bacon in 1999 found every £1 spent on road safety could create savings of £8 or more for the Government.
He said the federation was calling for a single funding mechanism for road safety in the next Budget.
The federation recommended policy measures including: a doubling of on-the-spot fines for speeding; cutting the long wait for driving tests; a registration and competency testing scheme for driving instructors; early implementation of a penalty points system for motoring offences, contained in the proposed Road Traffic Bill; and a personal injuries assessment board.
A Government spokesman said additional funding of at least £500,000 would be announced today for the Medical Bureau of Road Safety and the National Safety Council.
