Fianna Fáil backbencher Barry Andrews suggested sending sports stars as ambassadors to schools to encourage road safety.
"The people young people look up to are not politicians in all cases. They look up to sports stars. We have a lot of debate about whether Gaelic footballers or hurlers should be paid.
"We should get people like Dan Shanahan, hurler of the year, into schools around Waterford to talk to young people about road safety. Give him a few quid to supplement his income."
Mr Andrews, who represents Dún Laoghaire, said that "with respect to Gay Byrne [ chairman of the Road Safety Authority], he would not have the same cachet among the young people causing the problem".
He was speaking during the resumed debate on a Fine Gael private members' motion calling for the reform of the penalty points system.
Mary Upton (Labour, Dublin South Central) said so far this year, 316 people had died on the roads. The leading causes of deaths and injuries were speed, alcohol, drugs and driver fatigue.
"All of these factors can be controlled and it should be possible to eliminate them, if there is the will there to do it." The real tragedy, she said, was that there were innocent victims involved.
Ms Upton said that in 2005, the last year for which there were official statistics, there were 396 fatalities and 9,318 injuries arising from road traffic incidents.
"That is a total of 9,714 people who were either killed or injured on our roads, in one year, or an average of 809 people a month."
The statistics, however, did not give any indication of the extent of the injuries, but it was certain that a high proportion of them would affect seriously, or indefinitely, the lives of many people.
"I think this issue cannot receive enough publicity. The consequences of the deaths, or the severe injuries, should be preventable."
MJ Nolan (FF, Carlow-Kilkenny) suggested that the reduction in road deaths was due to the new drink-driving laws, implementation of speed limits and the vigilance of the Garda traffic corps.
"I think there is a new attitude on the part of young drivers who now nominate a non-drinking driver if they are going out for the night."
Ciarán Cuffe (Green Party, Dún Laoghaire) said the bar had been set too low on what could be done on road safety and they had almost become accustomed to hundreds of people dying on the roads. A Government amendment, endorsing its policy, was passed.
