Minister of State for Transport and Donegal TD Pat "The Cope" Gallagher is to visit local schools around Inishowen and meet local gardaí and road safety authorities in a bid to curb the number of multiple victim fatal crashes in the county.
However, fellow Donegal TD Dinny McGinley (FG) said the recent deaths were further proof that the Government had failed to implement its own road safety strategy and he accused the Department of Transport of "a litany of broken promises".
Mr Gallagher told The Irish Times after the crash that he had spoken at length with Minister for Transport Martin Cullen on Saturday night and both were of the view that the problems in Inishowen were a microcosm of those in Ireland as a whole.
While he did not want to comment specifically on any accident or prejudice the findings of an investigation, in general "personal responsibility" had a role to play in driver behaviour which could not be substituted by road safety strategies.
"Even with all of these, we are still depending entirely on individuals, drivers, taking responsibility into their own hands. They are responsible for themselves, their passengers and indeed other road users."
He said he would be meeting the Co Donegal VEC executive today and would use the opportunity to "get the message out" to schools.
"I would hope to visit the schools in Inishowen - there are two second-level schools at Carndonagh and the vocational school in Buncrana - because the incidence of accidents there is worse than in any other part of the country.
"I will also be meeting as soon as possible the Garda chief superintendent in the area, members of the National Roads Authority and Donegal County Council."
He added that notwithstanding his discussions with the chief superintendent, he would be anxious to see the current pilot programme involving extra traffic gardaí continue in the area.
"I had a long discussion with Martin Cullen and we decided that I would go and meet all of these people" he said. "You can't have an officer at every port or a garda at every crossroads so I would be appealing to drivers to be responsible and I would hope that this [ latest] accident would change attitudes."
However, Mr McGinley said more than 60 people had already lost their lives on Irish roads "only a month and a half into 2006" and that this was "a devastating indictment of the Government's failure to address road safety".
"This latest road smash resulting in five deaths brings the number of people who have died on our roads already this year to 63 and we are only half way through the second month. This is a terrifying state of affairs and if the trend continues we will see our tragically high record on road deaths increase yet again.
"The year-on-year increase to 399 in 2005 from 370 in 2004 and 335 in 2003 is a clear indication that the Government is failing to deliver on its own road safety strategy.
"It is frightening to consider what the total might be at the end of this year if road fatalities continue at the rate they are going. Why is it that road fatality trends in Ireland are going up when in every other European country they are going down?"
Mr McGinley continued: "One thing is abundantly clear, if the Government failure to address this crisis continues, then we will see no end to the wanton slaughter on our roads."