Cork councillor says disbanding of Road Safety Authority is ‘a good idea’

A proposal to disband the Road Safety Authority (RSA) has been welcomed by a Cork city councillor.

An independent, external review of the RSA was carried out by Indecon in January 2024 to examine the RSA’s structures, service provision, strategic goals, and funding model.

The final report and proposed next steps, which include splitting up the facets of the RSA, with new agencies taking over driving tests and NCT, will be presented to government in the coming weeks.

An RSA spokesperson told The Echo: “The Road Safety Authority notes the minister of transport’s intention to bring a proposal to Government in relation to the future structure of the RSA.

“RSA will continue to collaborate and work closely with the Department of Transport and other key stakeholders to make Irish roads safer for everyone, recognising the need for continued investment to save lives and reduce serious injuries.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Transport explained: “Various options for reform have been presented by Indecon.

“A core principle underlying many of the proposals is that there could be benefit in separating service delivery and customer operations from public-interest activities in the areas of education, research, and public awareness.”

Oliver Moran, Green Party councillor for Cork City North East and candidate for Cork North Central in the upcoming general elections, told The Echo: “The RSA have been long criticised by active travel proponents for being too car focused. All they ever seemed to do for non-motorists was hand out high-visibility vests.

“The writing had already been on the wall and then, over the summer, they produced a campaign that described people without a driver’s licence as being a ‘burden’ on others. It was meant to be a warning about losing your licence for drink or drug driving.

“It infuriated disability groups, public-transport users, and active-travel advocates. I sought the cost of the campaign through a Freedom of Information request in August. I still haven’t received it,” he said.

Splitting the RSA “is a good idea, but still leaves questions open”, he said.

“The funding model was that revenue from motoring, like the NCT and the issuing of drivers’ licences, was used to fund campaigns for road safety, more or less, caused by motoring.

“It produced perverse contradictions, whereby a body set up to reduce the dangers from motoring was dependent upon there being more cars on the road for its revenue.

“Now that it’s being split up, how the road-safety aspect will be funded and how knitted-in it will be with the Department of Transport has to be worked out.”