The Road Safety Authority (RSA) has told an Oireachtas Committee it will resume sharing of key crash data with local authorities "in due course."
However, when questioned by members of the Public Accounts Committee, Department of Transport officials did not commit to a clear timeline.
In April, Prime Time reported that road engineering teams in local authorities were not able to view data on road collisions which have happened in Ireland over the last six years due to a GDPR concern.
This means that local authorities, who are responsible for maintaining the vast majority of Ireland's road network, have not had access to up-to-date data on crashes.
Speaking at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), RSA CEO Sam Waide said that following consultation with the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC), an agreement has been reached for collision data to be shared.
"We anticipate that to be in place in due course," he said.
Doing so requires a change to the Roads Act (1993), according to officials. Keith Walsh, the Assistant Secretary with responsibility for Road Transport Services in the Dept of Transport said they are "very keen to bring this forward as quickly as possible."
Catherine Murphy, Social Democrats TD, asked whether that would happen "in this lifetime of this Government?"
"I don't know, deputy," Mr Walsh replied.
In response to follow-up questions about earlier assurances that the issue would be resolved by the end of the year, Mr Walsh said "I believe the drafting will be quick... we will push the legislation through as quickly as possible, but neither us or our ministers can guarantee how quickly something will pass through the Oireachtas."
Data detailing time, type, cause, speed and other factors is used by road engineers across Europe to identify and inform safety-related design and layout changes.
Read more: How a lack of crash data is hampering Ireland's road safety aims
In an opening statement sent to the PAC, Mr Waide said: "I am pleased to confirm we have successfully concluded our consultation with the Data Protection Commission and secured agreement to advance the necessary legislative amendments to support the sharing of collision data."
"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," Mr Waide said.
The RSA’s CEO also noted that the Department of Transport is to move forward with the necessary Ministerial Order [under Section 8 of the Road Safety Authority Act] to allow for resumption of sharing of the complete dataset.
The issue around the sharing of collision data has been ongoing for a number of years.
Until 2020, data provided by the RSA, originating from the Garda PULSE system, was uploaded onto a detailed interactive map system which could be accessed by the road engineering teams in the various local authorities around the country.
However, early that year, a legal issue arose within the RSA about whether, under GDPR legislation, it could share the data with several public bodies, including the local authorities.
Prime Time understands the latest data uploaded into the interactive map system related to collisions which occurred in 2018.
Between 2022 and November 2023, the RSA says it shared 'key variables’ on collisions with the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA), which maintained the map system for the various local authorities.
However, due to the GDPR issue, that data was not uploaded to the mapping system by the LGMA.
In late 2023, with the GDPR issue still outstanding, all the pre-2019 data was also removed from the mapping system. As a result, local authority roads engineers do not have any access to the collision data map.
Experts Prime Time spoke to for its original reporting in April said local authorities are therefore 'shooting in the dark' when it comes to making key decisions about road improvements.
After the Prime Time report was published, Tánaiste Micheál Martin told the Dáil that the lack of sharing of data on road collisions is "nonsense" which should be resolved "as quickly as possible".
During his appearance at PAC, Mr Waide told the committee that despite the ongoing issue with GDPR, "local authorities continue to receive analysis on high-level collision locations for the national road network both from Transport Infrastructure Ireland and the Department of Transport."
The national road network makes up around 12% of the entire road network in Ireland. It is the responsibility of Transport Infrastructure Ireland. The regional and local road networks, which makes up around 80% of Ireland’s roads, are managed by local authorities.
Read more: 80% of roads not covered in crash data analysis, Dept confirms
The Department of Transport previously confirmed to Prime Time that the analysis they provided to the local authorities only covered the national road network, meaning the latest collision information local authority road engineers have about local road networks is six years old.
So far this year, 92 people have died on Irish roads, an increase of 11% on the same period last year. The most recent fatalities occurred in Waterford in the early hours of this morning.
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RSA CEO Sam Waide also addressed this increase at the PAC, informing the committee that the RSA has spent an additional €3 million in 2024 on radio and digital audio campaigns that focused on mobile phones use behind the wheel as well as drug driving.
