Frustration felt by a minister and the public at lengthy delays in car and driving tests was the political motivation for a review that led to the government decision to break up the Road Safety Authority (RSA), its board believed.
The RSA board criticised government plans, agreed last November, to restructure the body as “ill judged” in correspondence to the Minister of State with responsibility for road safety at the Department of Transport.
The correspondence was released to The Irish Times under the Freedom of Information Act.
The Cabinet decided in early November that the RSA should be divided into two new bodies – one to oversee advocacy and education on road safety and the other charged with operational issues such as overseeing the delivery of the driving tests and the National Car Test (NCT).
The split was recommended following a review by consultancy firm Indecon.
[ Removal of Road Safety Authority’s advocacy role ‘would be backward step’, chairwoman argued ]
Former RSA chairwoman Liz O’Donnell said that the “political motivation” behind the decision of the Department of Transport to commission the review of the RSA was “the understandable frustration” of Jack Chambers – former minister of state at the department and now Minister for Finance – and the public at long delays in the provision of driving and NCTs.
In a letter to current Minister of State with responsibility for road safety James Lawless, she said: “We wish to flag our serious concerns about the possibility that the ‘public interest’ activity of the RSA such as advocacy, campaigns, advertising and education, which are core to our mission to save lives on the roads, might be moved from the RSA to a new entity or back to the Department of Transport internally.”
Such a move would be “ill judged for a number of reasons”, said Ms O’Donnell whose term as RSA chairwoman came to an end in November after 10 years in the role.
In the letter dated July 9th, she said that since the consultants’ review was commissioned, the RSA had “all but achieved” the official NCT waiting time of 12 days.
Ms O’Donnell said driver-test waiting times had reduced from more than 30 weeks to about 15 weeks and that a decision was awaited on an application to appoint more permanent testers which was with the Department of Transport.
“This additional capacity will be a major step in restoring driver testing to 10 weeks’ wait time for customers,” she said.
But, in a replying letter on July 22nd, Mr Lawless took issue with the assertion that the 12-day waiting time for the NCT had been all but achieved.
He said that at the time waiting times remained at 16 days – “approximately the level they were for much of the second quarter”.
“While significant progress has been made, wait times are still 33 per cent above target with continued potential road-safety impacts in terms of roadworthiness of vehicles on our roads,” he said.
[ More than 68,000 learners awaiting driving test, some as long as seven months ]
The junior minister said in the letter that significant progress that had been secured in the previous months on reducing the waiting times for driving tests had now “stalled and, in fact, started to go into reverse”.
He said that the Department of Transport had in March 2023 given approval for the recruitment of 75 temporary driving testers, bringing the overall sanctioned headcount to 205.
“This sanction remains in place and has been significantly underutilised by the RSA with just 159 testers in employment at the end of June,” he wrote.
Under government plans, a new Driver and Vehicle Services Agency is to be established to focus on issues such as driver licensing and testing services.
Separately, it is proposed that a new, dedicated Road Safety Office will run awareness, education and promotional campaigns.
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