Anton Savage: The Road Safety Authority's days, believe it or not, look to be numbered
Through a series of missteps, the body has found itself in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons
Originally published in the Business Post.
State agencies are like vampires – extremely hard to kill. As long as they don’t spend too much time in the direct glare of the sun, they can survive almost indefinitely.
For some agencies, it’s easy. If you’re small and boring, dedicated to cataloguing snails in Kilbeggan or closing dormant credit union accounts, then you’re immortal thanks to invisibility. If you’re huge, and regulating banks or saving lives, scale protects you.
It takes something major for the villagers to leave Dáil Éireann with their pitchforks and torches, eager to drive a stake through your heart. But the Road Safety Authority (RSA) has managed to get the villagers on the march.
Few state agencies had the advantages of the RSA. It was once seen to be doing vital work, saving lives, pushing back against a national crisis and likely to be needed for as long as people drive cars. To go from that to being publicly staked and quartered is a hell of an achievement that has been built on a number of significant missteps.
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