Labour Transport Spokesperson Tommy Broughan has expressed concern at a new report that shows Ireland is unlikely to reach an EU target for reducing road deaths by 50% between 2001 and 2010.

Deputy Broughan said, "Today’s report from the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) indicates that Ireland will be one of the states who will not hit this critical target in 2010. The ETSC records the percentage change in road deaths in Ireland between 2001 and 2008 as 32% and deems it unlikely that the 2010 target will now be reached.

"In contrast, a number of EU states including Luxembourg (49% reduction), France (48% reduction) and Portugal (47% reduction) are set to reach the 2010 target. Spain and Belgium (43%) have also been singled out by the ETSC for their progress in reducing road deaths between 2001 and 2008.

"Clearly, the Road Safety Authority (RSA) led by Gay Byrne and Noel Brett has made very significant progress over the past four years. Ireland has reduced its road deaths per million of the population from 107 in 2001 to 63 in 2008. However, there have been some worrying recent trends including the appalling loss of 32 lives on Irish roads in May 2009 compared with 19 deaths on the roads in May of ’08.

"The failure to meet the 2010 target on reducing road deaths must finally act as a wake-up call to Minister Dempsey. The Minister and his colleagues continue to undermine the work of the RSA by their ongoing failure on a number of key road safety measures. These include the stalled national speed camera rollout, the severely reduced budgets for road maintenance and road safety awareness campaigns and the failure to update road traffic and safety legislation."