The nature of the Road Safety Authority’s (RSA) funding, the majority of which comes from income generated by cars and drivers is a “crucial conflict of interest”, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has heard.
Representatives from the RSA along with Department of Transport officials were hauled into the PAC for questioning on finances and road safety.
Almost all of the RSA’s €100 million income in 2022 came from fees for its services.
More than €93 million of that came from driving licence and driver testing fees, NCTs and commercial vehicle testing. It recorded a surplus of €5.1 million in 2022.
Though not questioning its commitment to road safety, Fine Gael TD Ciarán Cannon said the way the RSA is established and funded is “fundamentally flawed”.
“You are never going to be able to get to the heart of what needs to happen here in terms of improving road safety in this country,” he said.
The structure and funding of the RSA is currently under review, with preliminary findings due to be brought to Cabinet before the summer recess.
Since its establishment in 2006, Sam Waide, chief executive of the RSA, said there has been a significant reduction in road deaths, from 365 in 2006 to 134 in 2021.
However, road deaths have been steadily increasing since then with 157 killed last year.
Some 91 people have lost their lives on Irish roads so far this year, an increase of nine when compared to the same period last year. The most recent fatality was a teenage boy in Waterford early on Thursday morning.
Mr Cannon said “the very raison d’être” of the RSA is being called into question, saying its sole function should be to make roads safe, but its focus is instead in a “plethora of different directions” such as NCTs and driver tests, which “anybody can deliver”.
He said the more cars and drivers on Irish roads, the more income accrued by the RSA, describing it as a “crucial conflict of interest”.
Waide denied a conflict of interest, saying the services ensure safety amid an “unprecedented deterioration of behaviours on our roads”.
Acknowledging that the increase in vehicles corresponds with an increase in risk, Waide conceded that the RSA “can and should” have a bigger role in working towards reducing the number of cars on the roads, but he declined to pre-empt any review findings.
The committee also heard a commitment from the RSA to recommence the sharing of collision data with local authorities later this year, following consultation with the Data Protection Commission.
The data which was vital for road safety design and improvements had been consistently shared until 2020 when GDPR concerns were raised, bringing the sharing of data to a halt.
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to our Inside Politics podcast for the best political chat and analysis
