Minister of State at the Department of Transport James Lawless said it was "reasonably likely" that the Road Safety Authority (RSA) would become a smaller organisation which would focus on road safety exclusively.
The RSA currently has responsibility for the National Car Testing service (NCT), driving tests, driver licence renewals and commercial vehicle testing. The money raised from providing these services is used to fund the organisation.
Speaking on RTÉ's This Week programme Minister Lawless said he had received a report by economic consultants Indecon which proposed five different options for reforming the Road Safety Authority ranging from minor changes to a significant restructuring of the RSA.
One option includes stripping the organisation of its driver and vehicle testing roles, enabling it to focus exclusively on road safety.
Another option proposed by economic consultants Indecon is to transfer the RSA’s role in promoting road safety back to the Department of Transport entirely, however this particular option is considered less likely to gain government approval.
The report states that a critical consideration is whether the RSA has an appropriate focus on key services and whether there are functions that could be better delivered by another body.
The analysis by Indecon suggests a greater focus and additional resources are needed on road safety education, and road safety promotional campaigns.
The RSA currently has a budget of around €100m per year, but the report suggests this does not provide a suitable basis to fund critical activities such as road safety education, awareness, research and promotion.
It states that these activities would benefit from a clearer line of funding and adequate resources in the event that income from other key services declines.
It is understood that the government does not favour the continuation of the RSA’s self-funding model, and any restructuring will likely necessitate a completely new funding approach.
Minister Lawless said the RSA "needs change… they have done a lot of good work, but perhaps they need to go back to basics"
"They’ve been stretched in recent years, they have had some campaigns that maybe didn’t quite hit the bar, and they have to regroup" he said.
The Fianna Fáil TD said the RSA does not have any engineering or technical capabilities within the organisation and this was something that surprised him when he first learned about it a few weeks ago.
Asked whether the option of transferring responsibility for road safety promotion back to the Department of Transport was under consideration he said "all options are on the table, nothing is off the table at the moment."
Minister Lawless said he would bring a memo to the government in late September with an RSA amendment bill going through the Dáil in the autumn, adding that it was "reasonably likely" that the Road Safety Authority would become a smaller organisation which would focus only on Road Safety.
He suggested that the organisation’s other activities, including the NCT, the driving test, and driver licence renewals along with commercial vehicle testing could be done by a new agency which would continue to raise revenue for the exchequer.
He said there should be a "direct exchequer budget" for the primary road safety element which is not contingent on how many vehicles go for NCT or how many people pass the test."
