A special meeting of the Oireachtas Transport Committee has heard that Garda resources have been diverted from road safety to police events connected with Ireland's presidency of the European Union.
Deputy Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy admitted fewer gardaí are involved in road safety because of the resources required to provide escorts during the EU presidency.
The Oireachtas Transport Committee heard that Mr Pat Costello, chief executive of the National Safety Council, believed this change probably had had an impact on the number of road deaths this year.
Opposition parties have been critical of the Government's failure to create the traffic corps and fully implement the penalty points system. Fine Gael transport spokesman Mr Denis Naughten accused the Government of using the penalty points system as a "cash cow" and Labour's Ms Roisín Shortall said road safety policy was a "shambles".
The committee met today following the reversal of a fall in road deaths following the introduction of the penalty points system last year.
An Irish Independentreport today also says the Garda will only meet 3 per cent of the target of 11 million speed checks required by the forthcoming Road Safety Strategy 2004-2006.
Mr Naughten attacked the Government's failure to honour its general election pledge to establish a dedicated traffic corps and recruit 2,000 extra gardaí and said penalty points were being used to generating revenue by "trapping" drivers rather than improving road safety.
The latest fatality on Irish roads was a man in his late forties who died when the car he was a passenger in crashed near Avoca, Co Wicklow. His death brought the number of road deaths in the State to 115 compared to 86 over the same period last year.