Road safety minister blames ‘everyone involved’, including road users, for rising death toll

The Minister of State with responsibility for road safety has defended his record as the number of deaths on the Republic’s roads continues to rise.

“I don’t look at the record and say: ‘Is it a failure of me?’” Seán Canney said on Monday. “It’s a failure of everybody involved, including road users.”

His remarks come after a grim weekend on Ireland’s roads saw four fatalities , with the number of deaths overall on course to be higher than last year’s total.

Canney, an Independent TD for Galway East, on Monday hosted an informal meeting of EU transport ministers in Dublin Castle, at which road safety and the fuel crisis were to be discussed. The meeting is part of Ireland’s presidency of the Council of the European Union.