Road Safety Authority funding
Mary Lou McDonald raised reported RSA funding shortfalls and warned against passing the cost on to motorists through a higher NCT charge. The Taoiseach said he would follow up, noted extra reserves and local authority funding, and said the matter was affecting costs.
I understand the Road Safety Authority, RSA, wrote to the Taoiseach last March asking for increased funding and detailing a number of projects that have stalled due to a shortfall.
That has been reported in the media. It seems the authority also informed the Taoiseach that the Government would have to plug the gap or allow the authority to increase the cost of the national car test, NCT, by 10%. The burden of delivering the funding should not be placed on the backs of motorists, who have already seen hikes in fuel costs and insurance premiums. The funding being requested is vital to combat the rise of road fatalities and serious collisions and to continue the delivery of important education programmes. I ask the Taoiseach and the Government to step up. They cannot expect motorists to foot the bill. I ask the Taoiseach to outline his plan to ensure the RSA is funded properly.
Comment on this
Not to be pedantic, but the RSA would not have written to me last March because I was not the Taoiseach then. I will certainly follow up on any correspondence the authority may have sent to my predecessor.
I have met representatives of the RSA on two occasions since becoming Taoiseach. We have authorised the use of €3 million more of its reserves for those very important education and awareness campaigns the Deputy rightly talked about. We have also allocated €30 million in additional funding for local authorities to improve road maintenance. The Deputy is also right that it is a factor in collisions. I chaired a ministerial committee on road safety in the past couple of weeks and I intend to bring a memo on road safety measures to the Cabinet before the summer recess.