The Government’s plan to reduce road deaths is a failure, according to a progress report drawn up by a Government-appointed group on road safety.
The Government Strategy for Road Safety, unveiled in 1998, aimed to achieve a 20 per cent reduction in road deaths over five years, but details of its progress leaked today shows reductions achieved in the first two years have not been maintained.
It also says that fatalities for the first half of this year are up on last year’s figure.
Labour's Ms Joan Burton has called on the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, to publish the report in full and said the figures show the Government's lack of committment to the Road Safety Strategy.
"The policy has failed because Minister Brennan's Government has attached no urgency at all to the necessary measures required to implementing the strategy and enforcing the law on drink driving with sufficient determination," she said.
The report says there has been little change to the number of drink-driving incidents and expresses concern about the number of motorcyclists dying on the road.
It warns although the number of serious injuries on the roads has fallen, the statistic may be partially due to a change in reporting procedures, though it concludes that "a very significant inmprovement" had been achieved.
The report said on-the-spot fines for speeding have almost trebled since 1998 and that pedestrian deaths have fallen 9.3 per cent over the past 10 years.