Road safety should be treated as a national priority in the wake of issues seen over the August bank holiday, Fine Gael TD Michael Murphy has said, urging changes in driver behaviour and reforms to roads policing.

Murphy, who chairs the Oireachtas Transport Committee, said the scale of arrests and detections over the weekend should serve as a wake-up call on how the country approaches safety on its roads.

Deputy Murphy continued: "Before the bank holiday weekend even began, An Garda Síochána made it clear that a major nationwide roads policing operation would be in place. There were repeated public warnings, extensive media coverage and every motorist knew enforcement would be stepped up.

"Yet almost 3,400 drivers were detected speeding. Others chose to drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs, use mobile phones behind the wheel or ignore seatbelt laws.

"Responsibility for road safety is shared by many – Government Departments, An Garda Síochána, the Road Safety Authority, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, Local Authorities and everyone that uses the road all having an important role to play.

"Every single one of us is responsible for how we behave when we get behind the wheel of a vehicle.

"The overwhelming majority of motorists obey the law every day and drive responsibly, but there remains a significant minority who continue to believe they won't be caught. That mindset has to change. "Driver behaviour matters and enforcement changes behaviour. The certainty of being detected is one of the strongest deterrents we have.

"We must examine how Roads Policing Units are deployed. The length of the road network, traffic volumes, vehicle ownership, collision history and population should all help determine where specialist roads policing resources are assigned. If we genuinely want to reduce fatalities, we must deploy our resources where they can have the greatest impact.

"In Finland, every fatal road collision is examined by an independent multidisciplinary team. The purpose is to establish every factor that contributed to the collision, whether that is driver behaviour, road design, vehicle safety, signage, weather conditions, medical issues or enforcement. We must look at how this system could be implemented here.

"The Programme for Government commits to reducing road deaths and creating safer roads for everyone in Ireland. To achieve this we need stronger enforcement, greater accountability, and to learn more from every fatal collision.

"Every time someone speeds, drives under the influence, uses a mobile phone behind the wheel or chooses not to wear a seatbelt, they are making a conscious decision that could change lives forever.

"Every road death leaves a family devastated and every serious collision leaves lasting scars."

He added that such tragedies should not be accepted as inevitable: "We must examine how roads policing can be improved and learn from these tragedies. The responsibility is on all of us to keep our roads safe."