THERE will come a time, Minister Dempsey, when you will look back upon your political career and, probably in a quiet moment somewhere, ask yourself what real difference you actually made to people's lives. Although many will remember you for what you believe are the wrong reasons such as disappearing on a sun holiday when the country was frozen to a halt, or your use of government transport at the taxpayers' expense, many others will remember you for the far more important things you achieved.

This week is just one of those chances you have to make a real difference. You can, minister, effectively help to save lives.

Because all over this country young people continue to needlessly die on our roads. Boys and girls are dying in road traffic carnage in their hundreds every year. And sadly, they all soon become part of a bunch of statistics that is the annual death toll on Irish roads.

This time, minister, neither you nor the government can point to a lack of facts or information as an excuse for a failure to act. Because for the first time, we now have a well-researched, incisive body of research that tells us a few truths about road carnage.

The truth that young people are five times more likely to die in a road traffic accident is shocking, to say the least. In the 11 years between 1997 and 1998, 18 boys and girls aged between 10 and 16 year were among the victims. Perhaps the most unfortunate finding of all is the fact that young drivers aged 17-24 make up 29 per cent of all those killed on our roads.

One could argue that the Road Safety Authority research reveals nothing new; argue that we already know it's young, inexperienced drivers who are most at risk of meeting serious injury or even death when they sit behind the wheel.

On that basis, why then are we still waiting for legislative change that would surely help to save lives; one life, any life?

Needless to say, minister, you're not in any way personally responsible for any of the human tragedy. But just because you're not part of the problem does not exclude you from being part of the solution.

As long as we dehumanise road fatalities by reducing the issue to statistics and numbers, we're in dire trouble. Every single road death causes unimaginable hurt and grief for years and years afterwards.

I know this, minster, because my own family went through it. I remember the early morning when three gardai called to our front door. I'll forever remember the look on my parents' faces as the Garda Sergeant tried, as best he could, to spurt out the line every garda must dread having to say.

And years after my brother joined the road fatality statistics in 1984, Mom still looked up to the sacred heart picture every day and asked the bearded man on the wall 'why?'. Why did this happen to us?

Was it something we did or didn't do? And perhaps most pitiful of all, 'why my 25-year-old son and not me?'

That's just one mother, minister. In the 11 years alone up to 2008, almost 1,300 mothers or fathers or sisters or brothers have been asking the same questions.

The reality is that too many young, inexperienced drivers are allowed to get behind the wheel and drive wherever and whenever they like – unchecked or in the full knowledge they are

unlikely to ever be checked.

AND this time too, minister, maybe you and the Road Safety Authority would consider talking – really talking – to parents. Because the latest research also shone the spotlight on the social habits of young people. The fact that almost 40 per cent of the 1,284 deaths happened between the hours of midnight and 5.00am, with the vast majority of these accidents claiming the lives of people not old enough to vote, tells me, at least, that parents too are part of the solution. The new graduated driver licensing system that requires all learner drivers take a set number of lessons from a qualified driving instructor is a step in the right direction. But it is just one of many steps that you, the Road Safety Authority, parents and all of us need to take in an all-out effort to reduce the carnage. So before you leave office, minister, ask yourself have you done everything in your political power to lead and legislate when it comes to road safety? Because in the end, minister, that's what really counts. It's all about making a difference. A big difference. Yours truly, Aidan O'Connor

- AIDAN O'CONNOR