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THE GOVERNMENT IS set to disband the Road Safety Authority (RSA) in one of its last major decisions before the upcoming election.
The decision will be “binding” and although an incoming government would have the power to reverse it, this is “unlikely”, according to James Lawless, the Minister of State with responsibility for road safety.
A memo to cabinet “in the next week or 10 days” will propose hiving off the RSA’s operational functions such as running driving tests and coordinating the NCT to a new agency, Lawless said.
He noted there have been long waiting times for some services which are essential to drive legally in Ireland. Some functions of the motor tax office may go to this new agency also.
Lawless’s assessment is that this operational side of the RSA is “not working”, while the authority’s safety promotion remit is also “not where it needs to be”.
These problems are compounding each other, with “potential for distraction between the two arms”, he added.
“If there’s a board meeting dominated by discussion on NCT delays and licence failures, there’s not the same time being afforded to discussion on road safety, for example,” he suggested.
“The road safety piece appears to be sharing a stage…in terms of board bandwidth and management bandwidth and activities, and they’re competing for attention, and neither [function] is really getting the attention it deserves.”
Lawless added that the public deserved to be able to avail of state services such as licence renewal and driving tests in a timely fashion and while the RSA has encountered issues with contracts and providers of some services “ultimately the buck has to stop somewhere”.
The RSA’s safety advocacy remit will be taken over by a new body directly funded by the exchequer.
At present the RSA partly funds this work with revenue from its operational functions, but it’s understood a report for government on the agency by consultants Indecon has found that this funding model is not sustainable and risks leaving advocacy underfunded.
Last year, the RSA’s total expenditure was just under €100m, roughly equivalent to its income.
It has not yet been decided within government how separate the new advocacy body will be from the Department of Transport.
Lawless said: “It may not be decided in the next couple of weeks, but I suppose there’s a direction and intention of government to separate out the operation from the research and safety piece.”
The new road safety agency could be an executive agency within the department in the same way that the Probation Service, for example, is within the Department of Justice. Lawless said he would like to see an increased emphasis on research.
In a statement last night, the RSA said it noted the Minister for Transport’s intention to bring a proposal to government in relation to its future structure, and the government’s commitment in the budget to “fund road safety services and campaigns, against the gaps in the existing funding model, as stated within Indecon’s independent review”.
“The 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,” it said.
The demise of the RSA comes during a road safety crisis which started under the current government – and has deteriorated over the course of its term.
After years of decreasing numbers of road deaths, and upward trend in fatal accidents emerged during the pandemic and has continued in the years since, although the number of deaths so far this year is now tracking slightly behind the same period of last year. This may be due to increased garda enforcement.
In the first seven months of the year, 113 lives were lost on Irish roads, 44% more than in the equivalent period of 2019, before this government took office, according to the most recent RSA analysis.
Is this collapse in road safety this government’s legacy?
“I would say that the government has taken swift action to address it,” Lawless countered.
“It [the government's response] is as fundamental as you can get, an organisation being restructured and separated – and very radical transformation [of the RSA].”
Lawless added that he would like to do more, including a more graduated system of penalty points for speeding.
“At the moment, it’s three points whether you’re in 1km over the limit or 100km. I think we could possibly have maybe two penalty points for, you know, 0-10km over the limit, maybe six points if you’re over 50km over the limit, something like that,” he explained.
Speeders will need to watch out – up to 12 new fixed and average speed cameras will be put in place by the end of this year, as part of a much wider programme of new speed cameras. Average speed cameras monitor the time it takes for a car to get from one point to another on a stretch of road and calculate whether they have been speeding.
Lawless said he’d also like to go further by making mobile phone use at the wheel a “non-intercept offence”, meaning it could be detected using cameras as is done in other jurisdictions such as the Netherlands, and tickets sent in the post in the same way as is done for speeding. At present, gardaí have to catch people using their mobile phones.
“It’s legislative change, but it’s simple enough and one I’d like to see. We’re rolling out hundreds of speed cameras around the country, so I would like those cameras to be more than speed cameras, I’d like them to be road safety cameras,” he said.
Asked whether roadside emergency medicine in Ireland could be improved to save more lives when accidents happen, Lawless said he has spoken to the Department of Health about the idea of more doctors attending the scene of accidents – as is par for the course in other European countries – and Health is “actively looking at it”.
With an election probably just over a month away, what is the difference between Fianna Fáil and its coalition partners on transport policy?
Lawless mentions Fianna Fáil’s backing for a dedicated transport police force in Ireland. He argued that this would guarantee resourcing of transport policing – as officers could not be moved to other areas when there is pressure to do so.
He also instanced Fianna Fáil’s preference for multi-annual funding for road projects, arguing that some road schemes such as the N72 in Cork and upgrade works on the N4 near Newtownforbes would have progressed faster if longer term funding had been put in place.
This is understood to be a point of difference with the Green Party. Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan has been challenged on this issue in the Dáil by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael TDs. The Green Party minister has indicated the current system of drawing down funding each year allocations means robust procedures are in place to ensure that expenditure can be attributed to individual projects.
Lawless praised the current leadership team at the RSA. It is not yet clear whether the current executive will be able to remain when the organisation is transformed into two separate agencies.
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Tis like watching a car crash in slow motion
@qffaffaf affrafrfraf: over, and over and over again
Good man Joe. Feed your own ego and hand Trump the presidency.
@Ger Whelan: exactly.
Yeah he’ll definitely just get sharper as time goes by, that’s how it works doesn’t it?
All joking aside, his family and those around him should be facing charges.
@marklars81: Facing charges for what? Other than the recent Hunter gun / drugs thing, what did the rest of them do? There is only one candidate in the race who is a proven sex offender and convicted felon and fraudulent liar, with plenty more charges yet to be heard.
@Kevin Collins: you need to broaden you information/news net
@Oh Mammy: I did just that recently and let me tell you that it’s a huge relief just believing whatever I want to believe and not bothering about finding reliable sources of info (i.e. having to watch them carefully over time to see how accurate & consistent they are), cross-checking info between different sources, etc. Now I can just kick back and dismiss anything that contradicts what I’ve accepted as other people just being jealous of my vast intellect and infallibility.
@Kevin Collins: Gaza ?
@Kevin Collins: plenty more charges to come, god it’s great to be on the inside track like you!
@Kevin Collins: Maybe elder abuse.
The media bear a lot of responsibility. The mainstream US media is extremely partisan . Virtually all of their coverage of Biden has been favourable, they tried to discredit anyone, even those on the left, who brought up his cognitive decline and age. Now that it can’t be denied anymore, they’ve turned on him and all of a sudden its all they talk about.
Comical. He might still be forced out.
Awful. Old men trying to hold on to power.
Reminds me of commenters here willing to support the academic Ponzi scheme where a group of dangerous modellers care nothing for society only their lucrative self-importance.
@Gerald Kelleher: Funny enough your mindless rambling reminds me of Joe Biden.
@Ger Whelan: Biden makes more sense than Gerald
@Ger Whelan: I don’t react to commenters like yourself; however, I can remind others that I know all too well that the same misguided comments directed at me are the same ones that will get people like the ex-President elected and from the same level of consideration.
@Gerald Kelleher: More useless rambling from you.
@Gearoid MacEachaidh:
The modelling community doesn’t even like you for your insignificance to them and would not even come here to engage with you, as you are just cannon fodder to them. They are people with no perceptive abilities other than to fund their lucrative agenda, which can’t even be dignified as extreme.
I come to the Journal and see a more balanced perspective emerging. Environmentalists can still have their pollution concerns, but rather than weaponising this through an ideological one-world UN government, they can demonstrate to society genuine research, which has been missing all along, for a greater appreciation of the planet.
Climate isn’t the problem; mathematical modelling is.
@Ger Whelan: Not all commenters are Royal Society rednecks with Irish names. That is the best I can do for you unless you continue to beg like so many others for a reaction in the absence of anything meaningful to say.
The playback of the experimental theorists is to get the cannon fodder to do their dirty work for them and lower the standard of consideration through slogans, reactions, dehumanisation and all the other worthless comments meant to distract from topics and ideas.
Weak men create weak societies, so while you enjoy being mediocre, others with higher considerations do not.
@Gerald Kelleher: Blah blah, Blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah that about the jist of your rant?
@Ger Whelan:
Although young, many of you have become old men by following the imperatives of old men who do not want to give up their lucrative social station.
I do not generalise scientists as many do; I isolate experimental theorists or scientific method modellers and their toxic influence on young people. You are a victim, and your reactions mark you out that way without any glimpse of a better world than the dire conclusions of the modelling community.
Many Americans would prefer to vote for and listen to mind-numbing junk from a social psychopath than listen to a bunch of self-serving academic psychopaths who have convinced many in humanity that it can control the weather.
I wish you were young but you choose to react rather than respond. Such is a slave to old men.
@Gerald Kelleher: that was not reacting?!
@Evan Keane: Yea Gerald I’m reading the rants you post. But it’s good to see you’re not taking the bait and over reacting.
@Ger Whelan: Weak men make weak societies if that is all you can manage to take from the comments.
@Gerald Kelleher: hey you kept your rant short. So I’ll read it. No weak men say one thing and do another. Much like you on this thread. I won’t react, yet here you are reacting because you can’t help yourself.
@Ger Whelan:
I won’t say God help Ireland, just help those who appreciate that getting old to practice politics happens, but people stay young by appreciating the planet and life on it.
All these are responses to what is possible, not reactions to those who sold their youth to a subculture.
@Gearoid MacEachaidh: three Ger’s walk into a bar …
@Gerald Kelleher: Ah your back to long useless rambling again.
Darwin pegged the Irish as an unaspiring, superstitious and subservient ‘race’, and sometimes it seems the Journal and most of the commenters want to prove him correct and true.
Being slaves to a subculture that some call secularism but is really scientific method empiricism can be an unpleasant encounter but worth it when the opportunity to remove prejudice in all human enterprise is at stake.
Time for commenters to be more considerate and less reactionary.
@Gerald Kelleher: No idea what you said because I ain’t bothered to read it. But I tell you it’s a good thing you didn’t react to what I said. Otherwise we’ll be here for days
I am Democrat all day….. but he needs to be challenged.
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: At this rate Biden is Trump’s biggest asset in his presidential campaign.
Ai Joe speaks better than real Joe. All the Best.
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Nope, it’s Donald Trump!
If you truly want Trump to lose, you need Biden to go
@Mr Sparkle: Very true
Joe Bidens’ record as president is clear. He’s presiding over a booming economy, record jobs, etc. Even if the choice is him or a convicted criminal, sex offender, narcissistic, lying, cheating lunatic that cares for no one only himself. Joe Biden should win it hands down.
@Ian: The irony of it is that by Biden forcing people to make the decision you are asking them make will hand Trump the presidency. Trump will beat him easily and that’s why he’ll be replaced.
@Ian: if ever anybody needed proof the president runs nothing in the US, Joe Biden is that proof. They might think they are democratically electing a leader to run things but really the president these days is just a mascot. The days of real leaders like Kennedy or Roosevelt are long gone. Groups in shadows run things now.
@Ian: Yes, but at what cost. Look at their national debt. Just printing money to make the economy look good. Not just Joe, being going on since Carter. An economic disaster waiting to happen.
@Ian: His booming economy and record jobs are not making the working class Americas better off. There are hundreds of thousands of homeless Americans literally tent villages in some cities, people can’t afford the bacis. Then they see their president sending hundreds of billions to fight wars on 2 different contents while telling China that it’ll Defend Taiwan should China invade it all the while admitting the US does nto recognise Taiwan’s independence and still see it as part of China. Whereas Don Trump is saying he’ll stop all that and look after the Americans. Guess who the Americans are learning towards.
@did you every wonder: Not really. The US is the strongest of the worlds largest economies. They dominate basically every sector and will dominate future sectors too esp AI. Their demographics aren’t too bad either, more young people, better at integrating immigrants, etc. Europe is in much more danger of terminal economic decline and possibly massive social unrest in the future.
@Eddie Garvey: he wish only compos mentis between the hours of 10am to 4pm according to white house insider reports.
Away with the fairies after that. Doesn’t work wkends either. It’s a crèche.
@Sickof thisshit: I read that, had a good chuckle, it’s amazing what people will believe and accept, should be an IQ test to be allowed vote, I know primary school children with more common sense than voting adults
Booming economy? The jobs “created” are rubbish jobs. Going back to reading other sources, go to the government site and read it for yourself. It’s all in their data
Challengemehnextmothimpresidentmurica trains.
@Stephen Gaffney: Exactly. Just what I was thinking.
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: hahahah
Hmmm… I wonder how much Trump and Putin and Xi Jinping are paying the Biden family to get Joe to stay in the race? A new conspiracy theory begins to take shape! “It’s twue, it’s twue!” As Lili Von Shtüpp might say…
The media and Democratic party have turned on Biden and people are now only noticing what was obvious for more than 4 years. The electorate are mostly dunderheads. We get the politicians we deserve. I’m not afraid of the government. I’m afraid of my brain dead neighbours. We already found out who is a functioning human during covid. Very few have changed. They only know what RTE/BBC/CNN tell them.
I guess the pro Trump are more than happy about it. Embarrassing.
I don’t think he’s getting the urgency of the problem. They need to get him out in the next week or two not a month from now.
I wouldn’t worry I’m sure he’ll have forgotten he said it tomorrow. What a state of affairs, like them or hate the the American’s have some real heavy weights of Conservative thought and all they can muster is a crook and a guy who makes it look like Jimmy Carter should get another term.
I don’t accept that Biden (at his age) should be running for re-election. That seems self-evident. However, there are two major and unique factors in play. One is that many Americans will have at least one (and most likely several) reasons why they absolutely cannot vote for Trump (reproductive rights, the Supreme Court, etc.). The other factor is that Trump is without precedent in terms of unfitness and inability to do the job and will just claim election fraud regardless of the verified results. So those are still two major reasons why it doesn’t matter about Biden in relative terms…..even though in practical terms it should. And bear in mind that Trump boasts about taking two cognitive tests…….so the first one he took didn’t dispel the reasons why he had to take the test. A cognitive test is only given if there is substantial doubt about the testee’s mental functionality.
@Numinous20111: I think only a few commenters get it. One runs on a bright future for America, while the other runs with the modelling community and dire predictions of impending planetary doom.
Running to prevent someone from staying out as they did in 2020 will not work now. With all the trappings, any type of power over society must be hard to give up, and some will do desperate things for that experience.
Like most volunteers and I, people should try doing something without financial and reputational gain and the real rewards it gives. Cut the toxic circle of funding, and the Earth-on-fire will go out. If the modelling community cares so much for humanity, let them do it as a vocation rather than a job.
I am leaving this country soon with all the memories of fair people with generous souls who have departed the land and been replaced with… what? Some still retain the traditions in music and other cultural persuits, but in a country where spirituality dies, then so does creativity eventually.
No Country for Old Men
“An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.” Yeats
https://www.yeatsvision.com/Mental.html
Some people are born young and stay that way, and some die when they sell their youth for a pittance.
You go Joe/Jill in your efforts to keep Hunter out of jail!
One candidate we fear, the other we belittle. Hmmm.
Two factors about Biden: His family are pushing him to rule, and his backroom boys are obviously pulling his strings. Is Biden at the helm, or simply a poster boy for unelected individuals?
How has it come to this? A 79 year old convicted felon and a liar vs an 81 year old man who can’t string a sentence together. They wouldn’t get a minimum wage job in Ireland
.
have your say