Some challenges feel overwhelming due to scale. Climate change falls into this category.
For other issues, significant progress appears realistic given the correct combination of political will, strategic planning and joined-up thinking.
Since 2021, road deaths have been rising, not falling. There is public and political concern and frustration at this but responses to date appear to have had minimal impact.
While road usage is growing due to economic growth and a rising population, meeting the Road Safety Strategy 2021-2030 target of fewer than 72 road deaths annually by 2030 looks challenging.
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The Government and various State agencies are right to be ambitious in their plans to cut road deaths.
As of November 28th, 164 people have died on Irish roads, six more than on the same date in 2024.
It is hard to find clear progress toward the 2030 goal in recently published road safety enforcement statistics from the Central Statistics Office.
It is unclear why the number of people being caught speeding and issued penalty points on Irish roads in 2024 was 43 per cent below the level of a decade ago.
The absence of a sustained decline in deaths over that period does not suggest growing compliance, and speeding remains a significant contributor to fatal collisions.
One significant change in the last 12 months has been breaking-up the Road Safety Authority (RSA), and it will now focus on delivering driver testing and licensing, as well as media campaigns and research.
Policy formation and the co-ordination of State agencies reverts back to the Department of Transport.
It will be interesting to see if this reorganisation is effective.
At face value it looks close to what existed in 2006, with the National Safety Council responsible for media campaigns and research with the department doing everything else.
The limitations of this structure led directly to the formation of the RSA, in which all road safety functions, barring enforcement, were centralised. Crucially, it was independent.
From the outside, the missing piece in this new structure is the independent advocacy role, ably embodied by Gay Byrne as the RSA’s first chair. Byrne regularly called out ministers and An Garda over delays in legislative reform or cocerns over enforcement.
A sharp fall in road fatalities followed the RSA’s formation, from 533 in 2006 to 162 six years later, fewer than this year to date.
The State controls almost all the levers around road usage – from licensing, training, enforcement, engineering and sanctions. The only variable it does not control is driver behaviour but it can influence this using the levers above.
It should be within the gift of the State to use these levers to cut road deaths.
It will be interesting to see if there is the political appetite for additional sanctions, of the type that previously had a significant impact in the short term.
Last summer, as road deaths rose sharply, the RSA called for emergency legislation to double to six the penalty points given to drivers detected speeding and using a mobile phone. This would have seen a driver lose their licence for a second speeding offence within three years.
Then tánaiste Micheál Martin quickly quashed the suggestion, saying the sanctions were “severe enough right now”.
Challenging decisions will be required if the State is to meet its 2030 target of fewer than 72 road deaths per annum.
David Labanyi
Head of Audience
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