The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has praised Ireland for the improvement in the country's road safety. At the ETSC Road Safety PIN Talk in Dublin the organisation's Executive Director said, "The improvements in Irish road safety show that it should be recognised as a road safety champion in the EU. We are very happy to see that the new Irish Road Safety Strategy is looking to build upon this progress, which ETSC has recognised through the 2010 Road Safety PIN Award".
PIN refers to the road safety performance index, a measure of road deaths per head. Ireland was ranked fifth best for reducing road deaths since 2001. The purpose of the conference, the 36th in a series that started in 2006, was to exchange practices between members to improve road safety. Jesper Solund of the Danish Road Safety Council presented policies that lead to Denmark receiving the 2013 PIN Road Safety Award.
Ireland's Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport, Leo Varadkar, welcomed the ETSC's report on road safety in the country. Declaring road safety as a government priority the minister stated his ambition to make Ireland the safest country in the EU. Part of the strategy is the Road Safety Bill 2013, which introduces laws for roadside testing of impairment due to drug driving and provisions for a new class of 'Novice' driving licences.
Road Safety Authority CEO Noel Brett commented on the talks: "The Road Safety Authority is delighted that the ETSC has decided to host its Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) Talk in Dublin. The talk marks the end of Ireland's Presidency of the EU from a road safety perspective and places Ireland's road safety performance in a European context. While Ireland has made some great strides in recent years, to lower the number of people dying and being seriously injured on the roads, there is still much work still to be done. 162 road deaths were recorded in 2012 and this is an unacceptably high number. Ireland's newly launched Road Safety Strategy 2013 to 2020 aims to have 124 or fewer road deaths by 2020 or 25 deaths per million inhabitants."