A delegation of members of the Oireachtas Committee on Transport left Dublin yesterday on a 10day fact-finding mission to Victoria, Australia.
The four-person delegation includes committee chairman John Ellis and Jim Glennon, both from Fianna Fáil, and Fine Gael's Olivia Mitchell and Senator Paddy Burke. While in Melbourne they will meet parliamentary members of road safety groups; the Victorian police and local government offices.
The committee will spend time in Canberra and Melbourne meeting groups responsible for road safety. Among the topics on the agenda are barrier-free tolling, which Melbourne has introduced; random breath testing, which is deployed throughout Victoria; and speed camera use.
The trip was recommended to the parliamentarians by former chairman of the National Safety Council Eddie Shaw, who resigned in protest at the non-implementation of the Irish Road Safety Strategy.
A previous Irish safety strategy, the Road Safety Strategy 1998-2004: The Road To Safety, was modelled on the Victorian experience. The then chairman of the National Safety Council, Cartan Finegan, invited members of the Melbourne police force to Dublin.
