Another week, another 11 lives lost. The ritual of reflection and finger-pointing and, inevitably, forgetting continues. As families in Clare, Kerry, Galway and elsewhere mourn their dead, the all-too-familiar debate is played out. Everyone has an axe to grind, whether it's the condition of roads, signposting, law enforcement, attitudes to safety or the glut of unqualified drivers (one in four motorists have yet to pass the test).

For a while, there is talk of change in everything from speeding controls to driver behaviour. But as sure as one Irish motorist on the N4 follows the next too closely to be able to brake safely, the momentum is lost.

And so another week begins.

But how long will we have to wait before our wake-up call arrives? And it must arrive sooner or later because, at present, Ireland lags well behind the rest of Europe in almost every aspect of road safety.

Take, for a start, our drink-driving laws, the most liberal in the EU. Only Britain has as high an alcohol tolerance limit of 80 milligrams in every 100 millilitres of blood (80 mg per cent). But unlike in Britain, judges here are allowed discretion in regard to the sentencing of drivers found to be over the limit up to 100 mg per cent.

In Sweden, where there are only 14 road fatalities per 100,000 cars compared with 44 here, the limit is 20 mg per cent, effectively zero alcohol tolerance.

Along with Britain, Ireland also shares the dubious honour of being the only EU member-state not to have introduced random breath-testing. In France and Germany random testing has been shown not only to reduce alcohol-related road fatalities but also to increase compliance with other road safety measures.

But in this regard, even mainstream Europe is well behind international trends. New South Wales, Australia, for example, has had random breath-testing since 1982.

In its first five years of operation, alcohol-related crashes fell by a third and road fatalities dropped by 22 per cent. Under existing law, drivers found to be above 150 mg per cent concentration are immediately deprived of their licences pending a court appearance. A zero blood-alcohol concentration limit applies to all drivers under 25 years who have held a licence for less than three years as well as to taxi, coach, truck and bus drivers.

More controversially, New South Wales police can order compulsory blood-testing, which can be carried out by nursing staff in the absence of a medical practitioner. Over 1.25 million of the state's two million motorists are randomly tested each year. Only 1 per cent tested are charged with an alcohol offence.

Calling for the introduction of random testing here, the Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, said this week it would give gardai greater flexibility in tackling road deaths. But the Government so far has resisted the move, promising only to "consider" random testing as part of its Strategy for Road Safety 19982002.

Gertie Shields, founder of Mothers Against Drink Driving, believes the only reason it hasn't been introduced is "on account of the drinks industry. The Government clearly feels money is more important than people's lives.

"We are hypocrites, weeping tears over Omagh, while we are losing 470 people a year on the roads, with 10,000 injured. As usual we'll have to be dragged kicking and screaming before we accept random testing."

Another area where the Republic compares poorly is driver education, with learner driver regulations among the most relaxed in Europe.

Effectively, a free-for-all situation operates here, with thousands of learners driving legally on a second provisional licence unaccompanied by a qualified driver, and even more driving with impunity in breach of the requirement to be so accompanied on a first, third or subsequent licence.

The Garda Siochana has admitted that it no longer enforces these or other regulations which require learners to display L-plates and keep off motorways. With 340,000 provisional licence-holders on Irish roads, the Garda's head of traffic policy, Chief Supt John O'Brien, said enforcement was "not practical".

Contrast this with the British situation, where learners are prohibited - and heavily penalised - for driving at any time unaccompanied by a full licence-holder, or on a motorway.

In other areas of road safety we are many years behind our European counterparts. We are one of the last member-states to develop a penalty points system, which will start only after the computerisation of driver records is completed in 2000; the last to introduce a written exam as part of the driving test, scheduled to be launched some time next year; the last to have a mandatory vehicle safety test, details of which have yet to be announced. The list goes on and on.

But perhaps the area in which we lag behind most is that of attitude towards road safety. While the Irish public was shown, in one EU survey, to be most concerned about road accidents, almost six in 10 believed they drove more safely than others and only 1.56 per cent considered their driving dangerous compared to others.

The phrase "in denial" jumps to mind when one considers another survey, published this week by PMPA. More than 50 per cent of drivers surveyed admitted speeding, almost one-third admitted overtaking after crossing a continuous white line, 10 per cent admitted overtaking on a bend and 3 per cent said they had fallen asleep at the wheel.

To Conor Faughnan, of the AA, this highlights the need to change behavioural patterns rather than legislation. "We always have a knee-jerk tendency here to alter legislation than to apply what's on the statute books and concentrate in the long term on changing attitudes.

"We are a nation of sloppy road-users. We are casual about everything from stopping in yellow boxes to parking to seat belts to speeding. What's worse is there's no social stigma attached to speeding. People will boast about how fast their cars go. But the practice of speeding should be as anti-social as spitting at the dinner table."

Irish attitudes in this regard, he says, are shown up in particular when compared to Britain. Even though road safety legislation is relatively similar in both countries, twice as many people per capita die here in road accidents. "In Britain, they are far more responsible about safety."

The Irish fatality rate is 12.1 road deaths per 100,000 people.

Dave Rogers, road safety adviser to the Birmingham-based Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, says the changing of attitudes has been central to reducing Britain's fatality rate to 6.4 road deaths per 100,000 people, the lowest in Europe.

"Without public pressure for change or a willingness to change it's very difficult to make any progress," he says.

"A lot of time has been spent here on getting the right system in place and it seems to be working. The government is investing in infrastructure and traffic-calming measures, civil servants have a good knowledge of the issues, local authorities are committed to road safety and willing to put resources into it and the local populace is involved, training children and young people and raising awareness. The bottom line is commitment. It's needed from everybody."

That commitment seems to be sorely missing in Irish society, where drivers consider themselves above change and decision-makers appear reluctant to force them to face up to their responsibilities.

But the longer the stasis continues, the more difficult it will be to break. A new generation of drivers is developing the same bad habits as their parents, many of whom never had to pass the test. Car ownership is on the increase with new car sales up 16 per cent this year.

With an estimated 350 cars per 1,000 people, Ireland still lags behind the OECD average of 450 per 1,000.

Conor Faughnan echoes the words of many when he says "nothing short of sea change in attitudes will do."