The General Scheme of the National Vehicle and Driver File Bill 2025 has been approved by Government and is with the Office of Parliamentary Counsel for drafting. The passage of this Bill is a Programme for Government commitment and will amend the Roads Act 1993 to provide a basis for the resumption of direct sharing of road traffic collision data with local authorities. The Bill will be published in the coming weeks with enactment targeted for the first half of 2026.
Collision data are collected by members of An Garda Síochána at the scene of road traffic accidents. These data were previously shared with local authorities, to enable them to identify locations of interest (accident blackspots) that would benefit from safety improvements. Due to the presence of personal information in the data, legal advice related to GDPR has meant that local authorities have stopped receiving collision data since November 2023. As an interim measure, the Department of Transport has been undertaking detailed collision analysis on the regional and local road network to identify locations of interest. When locations of interest are identified, the Department notifies the affected local authority. In turn, local authorities can apply for funding of low-cost safety schemes for these locations of interest.
Data provided by the Road Safety Authority on fatal and serious injury collisions are set out in the tables below.
Fatal collisions
|
-
|
2019
|
2020
|
2021
|
2022
|
2023
|
2024
|
2025
|
|
Local Roads
|
30
|
33
|
27
|
41
|
40
|
38
|
45
|
|
Regional Roads
|
50
|
41
|
46
|
46
|
65
|
56
|
63
|
Serious injury collisions
|
-
|
2019
|
2020
|
2021
|
2022
|
2023
|
2024
|
2025
|
|
Local Roads
|
427
|
375
|
449
|
487
|
458
|
442
|
406
|
|
Regional Roads
|
665
|
495
|
589
|
691
|
648
|
615
|
662
|
