On 23 November last year I asked if the Taoiseach would take personal responsibility for the Government action in dealing with the carnage on our roads. In 2003, 335 people lost their lives on Irish roads. In 2004 the figure was 370 and in 2005 the figure was 399. The roads are littered with monuments to tragic accidents and lost lives. So far this year, 29 people have lost their lives in road accidents.

In the national road safety strategy, the Government quite rightly set out a series of targets. The problem is that those targets have not been achieved and cannot be achieved when they are not underpinned by the policies and resources necessary to achieve them. The record in this area is littered with broken promises. The Taoiseach will recall the Government's solemn promise made in 1998 to roll out speed cameras nationally within two years. Seven years later, only three out of 20 speed cameras are operational at any one time in the greater Dublin area. The Taoiseach will also recall that 69 penalty point procedures were to be introduced by the end of 2003, and two years later, only four of those have been introduced.

The Minister for Transport, who is absent, has repeatedly promised a road traffic Bill to deal with the issue of random breath testing and to enable the deployment of more speed cameras. However, the Taoiseach's programme for legislation, announced today, shows no such legislation in preparation. While it is obvious to everybody that driving behaviour is down to each individual, if a lackadaisical approach is taken to this matter and if individuals assume or perceive they can drive in excess of the speed limit, in excess of the alcohol limit and following drug substance abuse in many cases, they will do so.

The record of the Government in dealing with the carnage on the roads has been a dismal failure. The Government has failed on every promise it made, despite quite rightly setting out specific targets under the road safety strategy. Given that the Minister for Transport has failed utterly to deal with this issue, is the Taoiseach prepared to take personal charge to drive the matter from his office to see that real improvements and progress can be made, which hopefully will allow the targets set out in the national road strategy to be achieved and tragic and unfortunate road deaths reduced?

The number of road deaths and the carnage on the roads is both disappointing and disturbing. At the start, we should remember all those who have unfortunately lost their lives in recent weeks and months. As Deputy Kenny said, the primary target for the Road Safety Strategy 2004-2006 was to reduce road deaths to no more than 300 per annum by the end of 2006. That target will be very difficult to achieve with the number of deaths at 374 for 2004 and 399 for 2005.

I do not believe that legislation has been the difficulty in this area. We have an enormous number of legislative measures and another legislative measure, the Transport (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill will shortly be before the House, which will give increased powers in a number of areas, including some of the ones the Deputy mentioned. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform has announced plans to develop a traffic corps in each divisional area, with far greater numbers than at present. While the traffic corps is in operation at present, it is planned to use the increased number of gardaí to bring up to 900, if I recall the figure, the number of traffic corps gardaí around the country dealing every day, day and night, with traffic issues.

There has been the major extension of the application of the penalty points system, including the working of the technology system, which was slow to get off the ground, from the existing five offences to 35 offences, which will be launched in springtime. There is a continued focus on driver behaviour and key safety issues, such as dangerous overtaking and failure to obey traffic lights, stop signs, yield signs and vehicle crossing centre lines. There are the fixed charges that have been applied to offences — they will be applied to almost 60 offences. The vast majority of those are the 35 penalty points offences referred to. The Minister for Finance will make a detailed announcement on these matters in the morning. The extension will be facilitated by introducing a series of statutory instruments; primary legislation is not required in these areas.

The Deputy asked about the introduction of legislation to support the operation of privately owned speed cameras. Decisions on the locations where cameras will be provided will be taken by the Garda. I understand the Garda Commissioner is appearing before the Joint Committee on Transport dealing with traffic issues. I know that is an issue he will address at that committee. This is to be based on reflecting both the experience of speed-related collisions and evidence of a history of speeding. It is not a willy-nilly approach that cameras are stuck everywhere and anywhere on open stretches, they are in the crucial areas around the country.

There is also the issue of random roadside breath testing. We have come to a conclusion on that matter. There has been a lot of legal debate on what is constitutional. The Attorney General has given his advice on the matter. It is legal and constitutional to have random breath testing. It must be done in a particular way, but that will be done. That will be announced as well. In the past few days we have conveyed that to the Garda Commissioner.

I understand the advice of the Attorney General was the direct opposite to what the Taoiseach just read out. I drive between 40,000 and 50,000 miles per year and the numbers of road checks I come across throughout the country are few and far between. The public like to see gardaí conducting traffic checks. However, the perception is that the penalty points system is being used as a money gathering exercise with gardaí checking for speed as drivers leave a town between the 50 km/h and 60 km/h speed limits.

The Government is not really serious about the matter. It has done nothing about the use of mobile phones when people are driving. It has done nothing about roadside drug testing. I understand that of those who tested positive at least 20% were driving following substance abuse. The Government has done nothing about real training for motorcyclists, who now come up behind cars at considerably in excess of 100 mph in many cases, as I have seen personally. The Government has done nothing about cutting back on the number of people driving with provisional licences, which exceeds 400,000 — the vast majority of these drivers are unaccompanied by a full licence holder. It has done nothing about a real education programme for young people or for non-nationals driving here who come from a different culture and who may have difficulty switching over at short notice to driving on the left as opposed to the right hand side.

The Government could have taken far more decisive action in attempting to meet its targets, as set out in the road safety strategy, to save lives, which is what it is about. The Minister for Transport has failed in his responsibility to achieve these targets and has let the Government down. I again ask the Taoiseach, as I did on 23 November, whether he is prepared to personally take charge of this element of a fundamental issue relating to safety on Irish roads and use the power of the Office of the Taoiseach to see that these things happen. The public will obey, but they must know the regulations exist and are enforced. It is the responsibility of the Taoiseach to see that the facilities and resources are provided to ensure that happens.

Since 1998 the Government has had road strategy programmes designed to reduce the number of fatalities and injuries on the roads. While I accept that any number of injuries or deaths on the roads is too high, to the best of my recollection, the figures for 1998 were higher than they are today. At that time there were only approximately 1 million vehicles on the roads while there are more than 2 million vehicles today. However, when people are dying that is not the way to look at it. In spite of improved roads, more gardaí, more legislation and more powers, we need to continue doing that.

The Deputy referred to cameras and where the gardaí locate checkpoints. That was the point I was making. It is not an issue of troubling the public at easy locations. It is looking at places where historically experience shows evidence of a history of speeding, where speed-related collisions occur and where serious accidents and fatalities occur. That is where we should put the traffic corps and the speed cameras. We have a system of offences. There are also the issues of responsibility and training. I appreciate that a high number of non-nationals are among the fatalities, perhaps because of their inexperience of our road laws. All those matters are being rolled out and are being pursued. That is the reason for the huge increase in the traffic corps and for so many additional resources being given to the road safety strategy. The Minister will outline some more of those tomorrow.

It is regrettable that it is always a case of big brother trying to stop people rather than looking after themselves. If that is the way it is, the Government must follow with tough measures that will inconvenience the public and not only those who break the law. The Government is prepared to do that.

The Attorney General's advice on the random roadside breath testing is not that it is unconstitutional. To stop every single vehicle is not considered to be a fair way of applying the law but to stop vehicles randomly is. It will put some fear into drivers who, in many cases, do not care about this. The Attorney General's advice is that we can do this and that is the way we propose to continue.