Road Safety Authority chair defends under-fire agency
Liz O’Donnell, chairperson of the Road Safety Authority. File picture: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie
The outgoing chair of the Road Safety Authority (RSA) has defended the record of the under-fire agency, and said its current “self-financing model is broken and not fit-for-purpose".
“We know that the Government will soon make decisions on the future organisational structure of road safety,” RSA chairperson Liz O’Donnell, who has held the role for the past decade, said.
“I fear that if in the new reform proposals we lose [our] independence, that courage to call for the right thing, that campaigning zeal, we will not reverse the current trends and get back on track.”
Ms O’Donnell made the comments at the RSA’s annual conference in Dublin which focused on the theme of distracted driving such using a mobile phone while on the road.
Minister for road safety James Lawless has previously hinted that the RSA could lose its some of its current functions such as driver and vehicle testing, with a review completed by consultants Indecon offering a range of options for reforms of the organisation.
It is understood that Indecon’s analysis has suggested that the RSA’s current budget does not provide a suitable basis to fund critical activities such as road safety awareness and promotion.
This review has come against the backdrop of a surge in fatalities on Irish roads in recent years, with demands made of the RSA, Government, and gardaí to do more to reverse these trends.
Ms O’Donnell said that since the organisation was founded in 2006 and began to run campaigns and education programmes, there had been a 49% reduction in road deaths in Ireland.
“There was carnage on our roads at that time,” she said.
Looking ahead, she said the next phase of the State’s road safety strategy is being decided upon and implementing such a strategy is a “whole-of-Government endeavour” and needs “urgent focus and funding” to make it work.
Addressing the conference as it closed, Mr Lawless said the Government had promised €18m in last week’s budget in dedicated funding for the RSA’s awareness and promotions to “bring a sharper focus” on campaigns to make the roads safer.
“We’ve had a system where drivers paid through their NCTs and driver licences and services that they consume and that funds the safety campaigns,” he said.
“We’ve had a look at that in Government and said for something so important, something so fundamental, so critical, actually it shouldn’t be dependent on commercial revenues.”
