Minister for Transport Martin Cullen is to abolish the National Safety Council (NSC) and replace it with a new statutory road safety body with increased powers and resources.
Provision for the establishment of the new Road Safety Authority will be made under the Driver Training and Standards Bill currently passing through the Dáil, a spokesman for Mr Cullen told The Irish Times last night.
One of the main functions of the new authority will be to tackle poor driver standards, seen as a major weakness in the campaign to cut deaths. In addition, it will oversee vehicle standards, driver education, testing and licensing. It will also set up and monitor a register of instructors and work to improve safety in the haulage industry.
"Although we are happy with the work of the council, the road safety debate has changed and we have to act to respond to that," a spokesman for Mr Cullen said last night. He said it is expected that the council will close at the end of the year.
The Minister's spokesman said the Government is determined to do all it can to improve road safety, including giving the new authority increased powers.
"We are creating a super authority that will strengthen the government's whole approach to road safety," he said. "The Government took the decision that road safety was so important that there was a need for a new mandatory body with statutory powers."
Denying that there was any rift between the Government and the NSC, the spokesman for the Minister said it expected that the new authority will include members of the NSC. "We hope there will be a strong continuation of people," said the spokesman.
The NSC chairman, Eddie Shaw, recently expressed frustration at the delay in rolling out the penalty points scheme in full, saying there was no collective Government will to achieve this.
So far this year, the Department of Transport has given over €4 million to fund the NSC's strategies and campaigns. The Department confirmed that it plans to provide substantially more funding than this to the new authority.
The NSC was established in December 1987 to promote road safety. However, despite several hard-hitting campaigns aimed at reducing the numbers killed and injured on the roads, fatality figures have remained stubbornly high. So far this year, 241 have been killed on the roads, two more than for the same period last year. The past week has been particularly deadly on Ireland's roads with on average one person being killed every day.
The Irish Insurance Federation (IIF), after the Department the second largest contributor to NSC funds, has said that the Government must take some of the responsibility for the high level of road deaths. "I wouldn't blame the NSC - the Department has been slow to give the resources it needed," said IIF corporate affairs manager Niall Doyle, adding that there was frustration at the lack of Government action.
"The targets of the Government's strat- egy were 11.1 million speed checks a year as well as random breath-testing, but there has been a long delay in introducing legislation in both areas. Now it's feared that random breath- testing is not going to be come in at all. We would have a major problem if the Government reneged on this promise - all it takes is the political will."
The AA agreed that lack of funding hampered the NSC. "It was often working on a hand-to-mouth basis with very limited budgetary resources," said spokesman Conor Faughnan, who has been told that his position - along with all others - on the NSC Board will terminate at the end of the year.
Even car-makers have come out in favour of the NSC. Opel tomorrow launches a DVD in conjunction with the council aimed at ensuring children are securely strapped into cars. "The work the NSC does in raising the importance of safety is invaluable," a spokesman said. "By co-launching with the NSC we hope to put the issue of child safety firmly in the minds of the public."
NSC factfile
Established December 1987 to promote road safety; also promotes fire safety.
Funded by Department of Transport (to average of €3 million a year) and Irish Insurance Federation, which has given about €20 million since 1987; funds and sponsorship from firms wishing to promote road safety.
Implemented several education programmes, promotional activities and media campaigns, including hard-hitting drink-driving TV adverts. Road deaths have stayed higher than best-practice countries, although deaths in 2003 reached target set out in the first Road to Safety strategy 1998-2003. Since then, deaths have increased to pre-2002 levels.