Many Members have addressed the same point — the need for road safety to be addressed in a co-ordinated fashion if the tragedy and trauma that many families have experienced due to road deaths are to be reduced.

One of the most compelling requirements of an incoming Executive and Assembly is to establish a strategy, policies, and an implementation plan for a wide range of public safety measures that incorporate and encompass co-operation between Departments and the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Such a strategy and policies would address safety on our roads and ensure that our neighbourhoods are places in which people can live, work and enjoy their recreational pursuits free from the onslaught of violence, assaults and criminality. Road safety is one component of that strategy that must be given a much higher priority. The motion, which my party supports, addresses the need for robust measures on road safety on the island of Ireland. It also addresses the need for promotional schemes to make road safety a number-one priority. Those measures are urgently required, and they must be implemented on a co-ordinated basis through the development of a road safety authority in the North that is comparable in size, resources and remit to its equivalent in the South of Ireland.

In April 2006, my colleague Mr Dallat and I met the chairman and chief executive of the Road Safety Authority in the Republic of Ireland. We were amazed by the authority’s work remit and by its range of resources. We were told that it is important to examine the causes of road accidents. Did the accidents happen because of the configuration of the road or the road surface? It is equally important to examine the state of mind of the driver of the car that may have caused an accident. What provoked the driver to behave in the way that they did? Those important issues must also be examined in Northern Ireland.

Road safety should affect every aspect of our lives. At the weekend, I found an appropriate quotation that, I feel, encapsulates the issue of road safety:

“Safety is not a gadget but a state of mind.”

When we are on the roads, we should provide a safe environment for everyone by putting safety first.

The Road Safety Authority in the South of Ireland, which has its headquarters in Ballina, County Mayo, is charged with improving Ireland’s poor road safety record. It is responsible for several road safety programmes, including education, testing and licensing for drivers, vehicle testing and standards, road safety research, and the establishment and administration of a driving instructor register. It will also be responsible for managing Ireland’s driver test centre network. We need such a body in Northern Ireland, which must be co-ordinated with the law enforcement agencies on the island and with the Road Safety Authority. We should also have joint advertisements and promotion schemes that urge safety on our roads.

At present, road safety in the North is managed by two Departments, which work with the Police Service. There is also the Road Safety Council, which has inadequate resources to run a road safety programme. In fact, road safety education officers employed by the Department of the Environment cannot now attend district road safety committee meetings to talk about the important issue of road safety. How can the Department of the Environment garner information about road safety in district council areas, or assist with programmes to reduce the number of road traffic accidents, if it does not hear the views of the local community? Perhaps the views of local community representatives do not mean anything to the Department or the Minister.

In a recent letter to me, the current Minister with responsibility for the environment disregarded the need for road safety co-ordination and cohesion because, according to him, the Department of the Environment co-ordinates everything; it does not. The Department does not have the necessary authority, will or expertise to do its job of improving safety on our roads. We must ask the basic question: what priority has been given to road safety by the current direct-rule Administration? Their ad hoc, disjointed and reactive approach must be refuted and challenged. Current policies must be changed urgently, but that will only happen if an incoming Executive and Assembly have the will to ensure that road safety is of paramount importance and a number one priority.

Other Members have already referred to an overall lack of resources and only reduced resources being available for structural road maintenance. Over the past few years, the Department for Regional Develop­ment has not had the commitment to adequately fund structural road improvement.

During the first period of devolution, the Minister of the Environment ensured that the number of road safety education officers was increased. Unfortunately, the return of direct rule put a brake on road safety initiatives. That attitude in the DOE and the NIO must change.

Over the Christmas period, there were radio and TV reports of fatalities on the roads. Many reasons can be given for those fatalities, but we need to go back to basics and ask why each accident happened. One fact remains: families have been bereaved and have suffered a great sense of loss at a time when they should have been celebrating the birth of hope and expectation, and looking forward to a new year.

On Boxing Day, I visited the mother of one of the young people who sadly was killed over the Christmas period. Her sense of loss was palpable, and she told me that she could not bear to let her son go. Sadly, she had to. I hope that her words will lead us to ensure that something is done about road safety.

Although the number of deaths on our roads has declined over the past number of years, we must give hope to those who have been bereaved. We must urge the incoming Executive and Assembly to guarantee the establishment of a road safety authority, with a wide range of powers and resources, which can co-ordinate with the similar body in the South of Ireland and with the law enforcement agencies on this island. We must give the local population confidence, so that children, young people, adults and the elderly feel safe in their local environment and on the roads. Prioritising such road safety policies and strategies, accompanied with the appropriate resources, will go some way towards that.

If priority were given to road safety, it would provide a cheap and effective insurance policy. If we are serious about establishing a new Executive on 26 March, there is no reason why we cannot make road safety a priority.