A MEETING TO discuss options for a potential early-detection system for drivers going the wrong way down motorways between government ministers and state agencies is to take place on Friday.

Transport Minister Darragh O’Brien and junior minister in his department Seán Canney will meet with the Road Safety Authority (RSA) and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII).

The meeting follows a spate of incidents of young men driving in the wrong direction on Irish motorways.

One such incident earlier this month resulted in the deaths of five young men travelling in a car driving the wrong way on the M9. They hit a car containing three women and a young boy, who are all seriously injured.

In the days following the crash, the RSA said it was “not in a position” to offer advice to drivers who encounter a vehicle travelling the wrong way on a motorway or dual carriageway.

Canney then contacted the organisation to convey his unhappiness with its absence in the aftermath of the collision. Several days later, the RSA quietly published advice on its website.

Speaking today on Newstalk’s The Claire Byrne Show, O’Brien confirmed the meeting will focus on ways to detect this type of road behaviour sooner.

“We have a very good system for visually monitoring our motorway network and our tunnels across the country,” he said, “but looking at early detection of these types of incidents as well.

“That meeting is happening tomorrow across agencies as well, and anything that we can do there, we’ll do.”

While the state can act by way of laws and physical infrastructure, the minister said there needs to be a national discussion about this type of behaviour.

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“We’ve seen, tragically, lives lost, severe injuries that have happened there, and we can do something about that ourselves.”

He hit out at social media companies, which he said have a “major responsibility” in their platforming of videos showing and glorifying wrong-way driving — videos O’Brien said are “absolutely disgusting” and “despicable”.

O’Brien said he is working with Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan on reworking laws to more stringently crack down on wrong-way driving, as well as working to protect gardaí in pursuit from prosecution.

There have been around 12 cases in which cases prosecuting gardaí for pursuing cars in line with their duties have been brought.

The minister said he believes this is “not right”, and amendments to the Road Traffic Bill will be brought this quarter and in place by the end of the year.