Minister of State for Transport Seán Canney has defended his decision not to disband the Road Safety Authority (RSA), despite an independent external review of it last year that recommended it be reformed by separating the authority into two agencies.
His comments came as Susan Gray, who established the Parents & Relatives of Crash Victims (Parc) group in 2006, said the Government had done “a complete U-turn” on road safety.
“What has the RSA achieved in the past year to make them change their mind?” she asked.
Mr Canning, told RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland on Thursday, that the U-turn had come about because of improvements in the RSA such as the reduction from national waiting times for driving tests from 27 weeks to 10 weeks.
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Ms Grey said that there were 180 people “lying in their graves” from road accidents this year, which was 16 more people than this time last year. If the RSA was not going to disband then it needed new leaders, she said.
“They are not getting the message across.”
An independent external review of the RSA by Indecon Economic Consultants recommended it be reformed by separating the authority into two agencies, one that is responsible for road safety and another for operational activities like the NCT and driver testing.
“It’s better to solve the problems that are within the organisation than to be just splitting it up,” Mr Canning said. From his experience in the private sector, sometimes it was better to look at what the problem was rather than just “doing something to change it”.
“I think the biggest area of non-delivery would be in the area of road safety campaigns being more visible. The Road Safety Authority is an authority that should be out there and should be more engaging in relation to the fight against road collisions and road deaths.
“And I do believe that from my experience over the last year, a lot of things, If I waited to split the organisation before which I directed them what to do with the drive-in testing, we still would have a 27-week lead-in time,” he said.
“So what I’m saying is that it’s better to solve the problems that are within the organisation than to be just splitting it up. It’s a small organisation, it’s a maximum of 500 people, creating two boards, two chief executives, creating all of that, but what actually are you achieving by it?
“And I’ve read the Indecon report and I take on board what they have said. They’ve produced a number of different options and I’ve decided at this stage it is better to try and work within so that we actually get a more efficient and a more working road safety authority.
“They do a huge amount of work, the driving testing, the truck testing, they’re responsible for all of that as well as the road safety messaging and I think there is a lot of room for improvement and I would be working with them, with my department officials to make sure that we bring in these changes.”
In response to a comment by Mr Canney that to divide the organisation would be costly, Ms Gray said: “What cost are they putting on lives? Seriously? It should be nothing about cost. They should want the best people in charge of a Road Safety Authority.”
A Department of Transport spokesman said on Wednesday that, having considered the recommendations of the review, Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien and Mr Canney have decided not to create two new entities.
“Both Ministers feel strongly that change and reform of the RSA in its current overall structure is still necessary. The department is now developing proposals to be introduced early in the new year.”
So far this year, there have been 181 people killed on the country’s roads.
The latest incidents happened in counties Tipperary and Limerick on Wednesday night and early Thursday morning respectively. Two men in their 20s died in the crashes.
