Background

A report by Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI), the national independent advocate for reducing alcohol harm, outlines a series of 10 recommendations for the Government to act upon in order to reduce road fatalities.¹ The recommendations come in response to the deadliest year on Irish roads since 2014, with 179 fatal collisions claiming 190 lives.

The report opens with a powerful foreword by Donna Price, the founder and president of the Irish Road Victims Association (IRVA), who describes the heartbreaking repercussions of losing someone in a road traffic collision (RTC):

‘The impact does not end with the funeral. It lives on in our shattered lives. In the empty chair at the dinner table, in milestones never reached, in grandchildren never met, in ordinary days that suddenly feel unbearable.’

The Government has committed to a 50% reduction in road deaths and serious injuries by 2030 in the Road Safety Strategy Our Journey Towards Vision Zero.²

A recent study published in the International Journal of Drug Policy examined the early impact of Dublin’s first medically supervised injecting facility, which opened in December 2024 at Merchants Quay Ireland.¹ The facility was introduced as a harm reduction measure to address high rates of overdose and public injecting in Dublin city centre, where opioid-related deaths remain a significant public health concern.