Transport committee refuses EU request

The Oireachtas Committee on Transport has refused a request from an influential committee of the European Parliament to discuss issues of road safety, in relation to the deaths of a number of people from the west of Ireland.

The Farren family of Carndonagh, Co Donegal, the Gallagher family of Achill, Co Mayo and the Keane family of Ballylongford, in Co Kerry all lost young family members in road traffic incidents which they claimed were at least partly the result of issues with road surfaces.

The families have alleged local authorities involved in the maintenance of the roads were negligent and last November they addressed the European Parliament's Petitions Committee, outlining the circumstances which lead to the death of their loved ones.

In January, their visit to Europe was broadcast in a half hour programme by RTÉ entitled Mr Farren goes to Brussels in which the attempts by the families to draw attention to what they claimed were defective road surfaces put in place on a temporary basis.

Fine Gael MEP Jim Higgins, a member of the Petitions Committee who has raised the matter on a number of occasions with authorities both in Ireland and Europe, said the European Parliament had asked the Oireachtas Committee on Transport to discuss the cases, and take evidence from the families, but this request had been turned down.

Mr Higgins was particularly critical of Oireachtas Transport Committee chairman Frank Fahey.

"It is simply unbelievable that Frank Fahey's transport committee - which espouses a 'major interest in road safety' - should choose to ignore the plight of those who's suffering and loss has resulted from unsafe and substandard road conditions," he said.

Mr Higgins stressed the families were concerned only that "the grief visited upon them due to inadequate road surfacing and signage would not befall other families."

"It is quite clear that [the decision] is laced with contradiction - on the one hand it acknowledges that the transport committee has a 'major interest in road safety' while on the other hand it refuses to allow the right of audience to three families who lost daughters in three different accidents.

"The committee's refusal to highlight the negligence of the implicated local authorities and their attempt to silence those whose only intention is to ensure that no other lives are tragically lost is incomprehensible" he said.

In its letter of refusal the clerk of the Oireachtas Committee said it was "not within the remit of the committee to investigate or deal with individual accidents".