The Road Safety Authority is “failing miserably” at reducing road deaths, Michael Healy Rae has claimed. 

Today, it emerged that the body is running a budget deficit and a review has suggested the price of driving licences and NCT tests could be increased to pay for its running costs. 

On The Hard Shoulder, Deputy Healy Rae said the RSA is spending “extraordinary amounts of money” on road safety adverts which he believes have little impact on reducing road deaths. 

“I’m after doing a study on their campaigns, I’ve looked at over 300 campaigns that they’ve been involved in and what they actually cost,” he said. 

“I’ll give you an example of one campaign - that was the ‘Lose your licence, lose your independence’ campaign - which was very controversial. That campaign cost just short of €1 million. 

“The 30 km/ph campaign which they ran, that cost €819,000 - again just short of a million. 

“That was a great ad if you were from Clonakilty because it was more like a Bord Fáilte glorified tourism advert for the town of Clonakilty than it was anything to do with road deaths.” 

In 2023, the number of road deaths increased by 19% in comparison to the previous year. 

So far, 143 people have died on Irish roads this year - 10 less than in the same period in 2023. 

Deputy Healy Rae stressed that while he feels “so sorry” for anyone who has lost a loved one, road deaths are an inevitable consequence of a society where people drive cars. 

“The deaths on our roads are not decreasing in the way that they should be, quite simply because of a thing called the law of averages,” he said. 

“There are so many cars; one time if you went outside the house there was one car. Now… there are more and more people on our roads. 

“The population is increasing, so yes there is going to be more traffic and, sadly, the law of averages will dictate there will be accidents - fatal and non-fatal.” 

A member of An Garda Siochana places flowers given by the public near the scene of a crash. Photograph: Sasko Lazarov / © RollingNews.ie

Deputy Healy Rae said the RSA's efforts to drastically cut fatalities are “failing miserably” and the money could be spent far more effectively. 

“What I would rather see the RSA doing is [putting] some of the €22 million - which is what they’ve spent since 2019 - I would rather see this being compared with the local authorities’ budget that they get for road safety schemes,” he said. 

“Now, a road safety scheme could be to improve a dangerous junction… We should be tackling those dangerous junctions, we should be putting lighting at dangerous junctions, I know of umpteen of them in the county that I represent. 

“So rather than spending millions on research and on ads and on directors’ fees - this is actually a gravy train.” 

In a statement, the RSA said it is widely recognised that advertising has a "crucial role" in cutting road deaths and promoting awareness of road safety. 

"Reaching millions of people, across demographics, through targeted messaging is not only within our remit but is a fundamental responsibility of the RSA," he said. 

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Main image: Michael Healy Rae. Picture by: Newstalk.