The rise in Irish road deaths is no surprise – given Gardaí are being asked to police twice the number of cars they were just 15 years ago.

An analysis published this week by the Irish Daily Mail found that the number of Gardaí assigned to road safety duties has tumbled in recent years.

In 2009, there were 1,046 Gardaí assigned to road policing - compared to 647 in 2024. 

Despite this, the number of vehicles on Ireland’s roads has increased in that same period from 2.46 million to over 2.9 million. 

On The Pat Kenny Show, transport expert Conor Faughnan said the increase began when politicians began to focus on other issues.  

“Ten years ago, we had a fantastic road safety record,” he said. 

“It was literally up there with the very best in the world; with the Swedes, with the Dutch, with the British - the Irish were right up there. 

“It sort of looked like a battle won, so at Cabinet level the temperature went out of it. 

“They started to talk about housing and other things and the Garda Traffic Corps was allowed to atrophy.” 

A road accident in Dublin. Image: Stephanie Rohan/Newstalk

Mr Faughanan said given the rise in the population and the drop in Garda number, the increase in road deaths is “unsurprising”. 

To reverse the trend, Mr Faughnan called for renewed enforcement of existing laws. 

“We don’t need to dream up new laws about punishing smartphone users even more severely or lowering speed limits,” he said. 

Gardaí at a road traffic accident. Photograph: Sasko Lazarov / © RollingNews.ie

Also on the show, GRA President Brendan O’Connor said Gardaí are currently “struggling with numbers” and this has had an impact on their ability to police the roads. 

“It is an international phenomenon,” he said.  

“So, the exact driving factors cannot be asserted scientifically but certainly there is a connection between enforcement and the fear of being caught that influences driver behaviour.”

Mr O’Connor also said communication between Gardaí in different parts of the country could be improved. 

“I was just talking to a colleague this morning and we used to have an old pen and paper system where Guards recorded all those statistics in relation to local authorities and they were shared,” he said. 

“But now under GDPR, I read on media outlets, there’s less information shared.”

So far, 61 people have died on Ireland's roads this year.

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Main image:A member of An Garda Siochana places flowers  near the scene of a crash. Photograph: Sasko Lazarov / © RollingNews.ie