Tánaiste: Rise in road deaths 'very perplexing'

Tánaiste Micheál Martin has described the recent rise in road deaths as “very perplexing” and “a matter of grave concern”.

So far this year, 63 people have lost their lives on the roads. Garda Commissioner Drew Harris last week announced that all uniformed gardaí will have to conduct 30 minutes of roads policing per working day.

Speaking to reporters at Collins’ Barracks, where he had performed the official opening of a multi-million accommodation block, Mr Martin was asked about Mr Harris’s directive.

“It’s the commissioner that has to deploy the Garda workforce as optimally as he can,” Mr Martin said. “I don’t get involved in the operational side of An Garda Síochána, but road safety is becoming a real priority.

“Certainly, since we have emerged from covid-19, something different is happening on our roads. The number of fatalities and injuries are on the increase. This is going against the trend that we had experienced the previous decade, where numbers had come significantly down.”

Society

Mr Martin said that society needed to focus on road safety, adding that individual responsibility, enforcement, and legislation all needed to be considered.

“Certainly, it’s a matter of grave concern that quite a number of people, even in the first four months of this year now, numbers are higher than in the corresponding period last year,” said the Tánaiste.

“I think it’s good that the commissioner made that announcement and I know that the representative bodies had something to say about it, but in drawing attention to this and focusing on this, that’s important, that’s the commissioner’s job.”

Last week, responding to the commissioner’s roads policing directive, a Cork spokesperson for the Garda Representative Association, which represents some 12,000 rank-and-file gardaí, warned that 30 minutes of roads policing would result in longer Garda waiting times.

Very tragic 

Asked to comment on the fact almost 50% of deaths reported on roads are of people aged 30 or younger, Mr Martin said it was “very, very tragic” when young people lose their lives in an accident.

“We have all experienced that in our lives; friends when we were young who lost their lives in horrific crashes. In those times, there weren’t safety belts and stuff like that.

“It is very perplexing that, in the here and now, numbers are going up to the degree that they are. I think we need a bit more analysis as well, deeper analysis, as to what is going on.”

Mr Martin said he would appeal to people generally to take care on the roads and to be very conscious of safety, not just for themselves, but for those around them.