The new Road Safety Authority (RSA), which is to be established under road safety legislation currently passing through the Oireachtas and will work to reduce injuries and deaths on Irish roads, is to be decentralised. The new authority will be headquartered in Ballina, Co Mayo, and will be supported by a sub-office in Loughrea, Co Galway.
However, despite the makeup of the RSA board being confirmed later this week, the timetable being worked to by the Department of Transport means the authority's civil service staff will not be decentralised to the sub-office in Loughrea until October.
When operational, the RSA will have a dedicated annual budget of €30 million and will employ over 300 civil servants, 130 of whom are already employed at the Republic's 50 driving test centres.
However, while staffing arrangements have not yet been finalised, it is understood that the majority of the remaining 170 civil servants currently delivering the functions that will be taken over by the new authority are already working at a number of Government departments, including the Department of Transport, as well as bodies such as the National Roads Authority.
These employees have yet to be appointed to the new authority and have not yet been told they are being decentralised to the RSA's new offices in Ballina.
The RSA is charged with improving Ireland's poor road safety record and will be responsible for a number of road safety programmes including driver education, testing and licensing, as well as vehicle testing and standards, road safety research and the establishment and administration of a driving instructor register. It will also be responsible for managing Ireland's driver test centre network.
Initially to be called the Driver Testing and Standards Authority, the Government decided in July 2005 to assign a range of additional road safety functions to the new body, thereby creating the Road Safety Authority.
From the sub-office at Loughrea, the RSA will take functions from the Department of Transport's Road Haulage Division, including responsibility for enforcing the rules governing HGV driver hours. This will involve the issuing of cards to lorry and bus drivers that can be read by new digital tachographs that will become compulsory in HGVs later this year.