Questions are being asked about how police handle dangerous driving, after a head-on crash in Kildare over the weekend.The five boys who died at the scene have been named locally as Joe Carthy, Alex McCarthy, Kamil Pustkowski, Jeremy O'Brien and Jack Kennedy.
Four more people remain in hospital.The association representing Gardai officers has told UTV that the lack of training is hampering the forces ability to deal with such incidents, and the Police Federation for Northern Ireland says not enough officers are trained here either.
Five teenagers died after the car in which they were travelling in collided head-on with another vehicle after going in the wrong way down a motorway.
Investigations continue amid grief and anger as questions are arising about how to handle dangerous driving.
The body representing rank-and-file Gardaí officers told UTV that a lack of training is hampering being able to deal with such incidents.
John Joe O'Connell, Garda Representative Association said: "We're looking for training. There's nobody in this country is pursuit-trained to stop a non-compliant driver who fails to stop.
"We currently have a serious amount of Gardaí across the country who are driving patrol cars who are trained to what's called CBD1 level.
"Believe it or not, these people cannot activate blue lights or sirens. So that's where we're starting from in this country."
An Garda Síochána's Commissioner says pursuit training for Gardaí is expected to begin by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, the PSNI says it offers initial phase pursuit training to all response officers, depending on training opportunities available.
However, a spokesperson for the Police Federation says the organisation believes public safety here is at risk.
In a statement, they told UTV: "Due to limited resources and an ineffective budget, there are not as many officers as they operationally need to keep both the public and themselves as safe as they should be."
One former PSNI officer says this issue goes far beyond funding.
Alan Mains, Former PSNI Detective Superintendent said: "And it's all very much about risk assessment.
"And I think the police officers themselves need to sort of weigh up the situation at that time. You know, there's no point in chasing them through town in a busy built-up area because you're automatically going to put the public at risk.
"If you go into a night time environment where there's very little traffic on the road, then that's maybe a different scenario.
"But we'll always be command-and-control led, and they will instruct the police as to what they should do."
While discussions around public safety on roads continue, three women and a young boy remain in
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