Mr. Sam Waide:

I thank the Chair and Deputies. First, I would like to confirm for the public record that the RSA or I would not refuse to appear before a committee and I apologise if there was any confusion or misinterpretation by members.

I thank the committee members for the opportunity to speak to them today on the Road Safety Authority’s financial statements for 2022 and on a range of topics. Today we will discuss numbers and statistics but at the RSA we are always aware we are talking about tragic loss of life on our roads, life-changing injuries, bereaved families and communities across the country.

In 2022, the RSA received a clean audit opinion from the Office of Comptroller and Auditor General. The total expenditure incurred in that year was €95.4 million. As the RSA has operated as a predominantly self-financing entity since 2014, this expenditure was covered by revenue of €95.8 million generated from the various fees and levies for key services, including the NCT, National Driver Licence Service, NDLS, and commercial vehicle roadworthiness testing, CVRT.

The annual Exchequer allocation via the Department's Vote represents less than 1% of total income. Given the wide remit of the RSA, this expenditure was utilised in key areas such as the operation of the public services, with over 700,000 full licences issued, over 244,000 learner permits issued, over 180,000 driving tests offered and over 2 million cars tested via the NCT. In addition to road safety promotion, awareness, education, enforcement and research, there was investment in other priorities and strategic priorities, especially for the RSA to deliver our own objectives, but also actions the RSA has within the Government's road safety strategy.

I wish to discuss some of the key trends we have seen to date in 2024. Tragically, as of 25 June 2024, there had been 90 fatalities on our roads and there was another one in the last 24 hours. This is an 11% increase in road deaths against this time last year, in addition to over 560 serious injuries in the year to date. In our detailed submission we have highlighted some of the initiatives the RSA undertook in 2023 and has carried into this year to address the current trend. These include an additional €3 million expenditure in 2024 for ongoing radio and digital audio campaigns relating especially to mobile phone use while driving and people taking drugs while driving.

In recent years, the Covid pandemic in particular has created challenges for the NCT service. In quarter 3 of 2022, Applus, which is the provider, has not met some service level agreements, SLAs, and the RSA has applied service credits in line with the terms of the contract. We continue to do so within the agreement. I am pleased to inform the committee that the service is close to returning to the SLA of 12 days for booking a test. The current average time is 13 days. In addition, the number of customers on the priority waiting list for the NCT has reduced from a high point of over 65,000 in February 2023 to just over 6,700 as of the end of May 2024.

With driving tests at unprecedented levels of demand since Covid, at the end August 2023, the waiting time for a driver test was 30.4 weeks. With additional driver testers in place, new scheduling technology and our staff’s commitment to work overtime, including weekends, we have seen a reduction in the waiting time to just over 15 weeks as of the end of May. Our objective is to return the service to the SLA of ten weeks for a driving test. The RSA, with the Department's support, continues to operate the service within the current staffing sanction while the longer term requirements for the service are being assessed. The driver licence service currently is processing 57% of our licensing applications through our online facility and 98% of customers receive their licence within five days.

I am pleased to confirm we have successfully concluded our consultation with the Data Protection Commission, DPC, and secured agreement to advance the necessary legislative amendments to support the sharing of collision data with multiple agencies. This positive outcome is the result of months of dedicated work and extensive collaboration with key organisations to resolve data protection issues and address the DPC's previous queries and concerns. We have just received the ministerial order in that regard and we can discuss that further. Concurrently, the Department is advancing that aspect, including the sharing of full data sets with local authorities. We anticipate that being in place in due course. For the sake of clarity, local authorities had previously received and continue to receive analysis on high collision locations for the national road network. That was through Transport Infrastructure Ireland and the Department of Transport.

In summary, we are deeply concerned about the high level of fatalities and serious injuries to date this year and previously. We require collective actions from the RSA and relevant agencies, parties, stakeholders and communities to achieve this. My staff and I are fully committed to reducing fatalities and serious injuries on our road to vision zero. We acknowledge that reversing the trends of the last two years must be a priority and it will be a challenge. As a society we have done it before, and we can do it again collectively.

The RSA was established in 2006 and there has been a significant reduction since. There were 365 fatalities in 2006 and that figure had reduced to 192 in 2014. In 2021, we achieved one of our lowest numbers of road deaths, at 134. The trajectory of road deaths was steadily in decline until 2022, the Covid pandemic, the return of the full economy and the many things that have come with that, which I hope we can discuss. We in the RSA are calling this out and raising awareness of the concerning evidence of non-compliance by road users - killer behaviours - and the need for enhanced enforcement by An Garda Síochána. Fortunately, thanks to the support of Ministers and the Taoiseach, we have allocated additional spend on campaigns and media awareness. An Garda Síochána has engaged in additional enforcement, including fixed-camera locations, which will be implemented and rolled out this year. These will be transformative in terms of deterrence.

Reducing road deaths requires an all-of-government approach and commitment. It is our primary mission and we remain committed to achieving the ambitious targets set out in the Government's road safety strategy. I am joined by my executive colleagues and we look forward to a constructive discussion.