Ireland's ITF Presidency
Secretary-General Young Tae Kim led a mission to Dublin on 5-6 March in preparation for Ireland's upcoming Presidency of the ITF. Ireland will assume the ITF Presidency for 2019-2020, beginning directly after the 2019 Summit. This will include Ireland hosting the ITF's Transport Management Board, Transport Research Committee and Corporate Partnership Board meetings in November 2019. Ireland will preside over the Council of Ministers in Leipzig, Germany, in 2020.
While in Dublin, Mr Kim discussed aspects around transport connectivity, the 2019 Summit theme, at an information session organised by Ireland's Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport (photo). Around 70 transport sector stakeholders both from the public and the private sector attended the session.
Ministry representatives emphasised the importance of the ITF (and previously the ECMT) to Ireland as a platform for connecting with the wider transport policy discussion at a global level. The importance of Ireland in the history of the ITF - as the 2006 Presidency of the ECMT that oversaw the agreement of the Dublin Declaration which created the ITF - was also noted.
Since 2016, Ireland's transport development programme has provided the allocation of funding to support rural communities through the "Rural Transport Programme", focusing on older users and those vulnerable to social isolation. The Government Road Safety Strategy has set out a target of a reduction of road collision fatalities on Irish roads to 25 per million population (i.e. 124 fatalities or less) by 2020. This is required to close the gap between Ireland and the safest countries. To reach the target of 124 or fewer fatalities by 2020, a 10% annual reduction in fatalities is required from 2016 onwards.