Prominent road safety organisation Parc has written to Transport Ministers saying it has lost confidence in the Road Safety Authority following 185 fatalities on Irish roads last year, the highest annual figure since 2014.
The Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) last week wrote to members of every local authority in the State suggesting they should follow Kerry County Council’s lead and pass a motion of no confidence in the RSA.
In the letter, it said the Kerry motion “reflects growing concern across local government about the effectiveness, governance and accountability of the RSA at a time of escalating road deaths ... Against that backdrop, we are writing to ask whether you would consider bringing a similar motion of no confidence before your own council colleagues.”
A 2024 report by consultant firm Indecon, commissioned by the Government, recommended splitting the RSA into two separate bodies, one with responsibility for road safety and one to oversee processes such as driver testing. Earlier this month, however, the Minister of State for Transport, Seán Canney, said the recommendations would not be implemented.
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More than a quarter of the recorded road fatalities last year were the result of collisions in which at least one driver was travelling for work, figures compiled by An Garda Síochána indicate.
Of the 48 people who died in the incidents, 22 were drivers, 15 of whom were reported to have been driving for work at the time.
The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) said it is not informed of every road fatality involving a driver travelling for work.
Earlier this month the HSA reported there were 58 workplace fatalities in 2025, an increase of 60 per cent on the previous year, although the road collision statistics indicate these numbers do not fully reflect the number of people losing their lives in the course of their work.
In an unrelated survey of more than 900 HGV and bus drivers, 59 per cent of HGV drivers said they “sometimes”, “often” or “very often” break the 80km/h speed limit on national roads.
The November 2025 Ipsos survey, conducted on behalf of the RSA, reported 33 per cent saying they use a mobile phone for work while driving and 18 per cent saying they “sometimes,” “often” or “very often” fell asleep or briefly “nodded off” while driving.
Parc chairperson Susan Gray said she was “not surprised” by the findings, which indicate the need for “more and better research” regarding commercial vehicles and road safety.
IRHA president Ger Hyland said the organisation has “no confidence in the RSA’s data handling and reporting”. It is “entirely reasonable to question the credibility of an online survey based on self-selecting respondents recruited via social media, rather than a statistically representative sampling framework”.
“It is also worth stating an inconvenient truth: the road network is the workplace of HGV drivers,” he said. “Professional drivers spend vastly more time on the road than the general motoring public. It therefore follows, statistically and logically, that they will feature more often in collision data. Failing to properly account for this reality risks drawing lazy and damaging conclusions.”
In a statement, the RSA said it plays “a critical role” in relation to road safety, developing and delivering education programmes, raising awareness and supporting An Garda Síochána with communications activity around its enforcement work.
Asked about the apparent underreporting of workplace fatalities, the HSA said it “recognises that driving for work is a significant safety issue and that work‑related road collisions are a known cause of death and serious injury in Ireland".
“HSA work-related fatality statistics reflect those road-related deaths that have been reported under occupational safety and health legislation. The published HSA work-related fatality statistics accurately reflect reported work-related road fatalities as defined in the legislation.”
