A poll by the AA reveals that 72% of motorists believe that the Garda presence on the country's roads has fallen since last year. Only 8.5% of respondents disagreed with that view and 40% of people polled don't think the government is treating road safety as a priority.
The AA has called for the government to provide adequate resources to the Garda to ensure road safety remains a top priority. Last year saw road deaths fall to the lowest level since records began; but for 2013 the year-to-date figure has increased by 18%.
"We know from our dealings with AA members that people want to see Gardaí out and about on our roads." said Director of Consumer Affairs Connor Faughnan. "The Garda know that first hand themselves. We have also proved in recent years that prominent traffic policing saves lives. Even with public finances so challenged we cannot allow road safety to fall backwards in 2013. The human cost is just too high."
Another issue highlighted in the survey is the state of the nation's roads with 82.5% of those polled believing that the condition of the roads has worsened in the last year. Reduced spending on road repairs, combined with damage caused in the harsh winter of 2010 has taken its toll on the network.
"The roads, especially secondary roads, took a lot of damage in the exceptional freeze events of 2010." Says Faughnan. "Not enough was done to rectify that afterwards and since then we have endured chronic under-funding of road maintenance. This is why the AA gets complaints and attends car breakdowns caused by potholes and dangerous road surfaces on a daily basis."
"Roads are not like fine wine. They do not improve with age. If you do not keep them properly the damage gets worse and the ultimate repair cost escalates. This is what is happening now, as every motorist who has hit a pothole in recent months could tell you."