The National Safety Council (NSC) has called on the Government to provide the money necessary to allow proper enforcement of road traffic laws in an effort to cut road deaths.
The Government's Road to Safety Strategy 1998 - 2002ends this year without meeting its targets, according to NSC chairman Mr Eddie Shaw, but the next strategy could aim to halve the number of crashes and related deaths.
"This could mean saving 200 lives and nearly 1,000 serious injuries every year", said Mr Shaw
"It is a mater of profound personal regret... that it has not been possible to convince the Department of Justice that investment in modern technology and supporting management and administration resources for Road Traffic Law enforcement is a worth while priority", he added.
Speaking at the launch of the NSC's Annual Review of Activities for 2001 Mr Shaw called on the Government to provide the necessary investment in information technology to support the implementation of the Road Traffic Bill currently before the Dáil.
However a spokesman for the Department of Justice tonight promised that the cash would be available for the new computer system.
He said: "The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, John O'Donoghue, is fully committed to the introduction, at an early date, of the computer facilities that are required to enable the Garda Siochana to operate the system of penalty points.
"The Government is determined that this project should proceed as quickly as possible and towards that end, arrangements are being made to ensure that sufficient funds will be available to meet the cost of the new system."
He added: "Finance is not a problem."
A report in this morning's Irish Independentclaims the Department of Finance has refused a €11 million request by the Department of Justice for a Garda computer system needed to implement the penalty points system.
The Department of the Environment penalty points computer system is "ready to roll", according to the report.
Earlier a spokeswoman for the Department of Finance told ireland.comthe problem lay with the allocation of funds within the Department of Justice.
"The fund for the penalty points system is a matter of resource allocation of the Department of Justice. Funding in the area of office equipment and information technology for the Garda Siochána has increased by 47 per cent and 65 per cnet respectively, bringing total funding provided to €4.3 million", she said.
Meanwhile, Fine Gael has criticised the Government for "five wasted years of inept handling of Ireland's road safety crisis and exorbitant motor insurance."
"The failure of the Government to proceed with the penalty point system has actually served to perpetuate a culture of virtual impunity for habitual road traffic offenders including dangerous drivers and speeding motorists", the party's enterprise, trade and employment spokesman Mr Charlie Flanagan said.
