The Minister for State for Transport, Dr Jim McDaid, has rejected the suggestion made by the Garda Commissioner that gardaí driving ministers should be allowed to break the speed limit.
Dr McDaid was speaking in reference to a letter, sent by the Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, to the National Safety Council in January in which Mr Byrne said that gardaí must be allowed the discretion to exceed the speed limits.
"I don't see that there is any situation where a Government minister would need to speed," Dr McDaid said. He added that the issue had been "fully thrashed out already" when there had been incidents involving ministerial cars exceeding the speed limit.
Dr McDaid made his comments at the National Safety Council Endeavour Awards for excellence in road safety, yesterday.
Road safety policies would only work in a climate of "responsible behaviour by road users", he said.
"If responsibility for the Government Strategy is seen to rest with the Government and public agencies only, then it will fail," he said. "Road safety depends critically on support from individual members of the public, and from local interests."
The Endeavour Awards were presented to winners in three categories yesterday: education, media and an "open" award.
The winner of the education award and overall winner of the competition was Fingal County Council, for its "Star Rider" training programme, established in 1990 by road safety officer Mr Seamus Kelly, to provide instruction and training for motorcyclists.
A second educational award was given to gardaí in Mayo for their project involving transition year students developing a road safety programme.
The print media award went to The Corkman in recognition of its road and farm safety initiative and the audio award was taken by WLR FM , for a road safety advertising campaign.
