Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

The road safety authority will be the single body with responsibility for road safety. Work on the process of establishing the authority is well advanced in my Department.

The authority's functions will include those undertaken by my Department relating to driver testing, driver licensing, vehicle standards, certain functions relating to the road haulage industry, the road safety functions undertaken by the National Safety Council and certain functions relating to accident research and statistics undertaken by the National Roads Authority. The authority will also have responsibility for the regulation of driving instruction, the introduction of compulsory basic training for motorcyclists and the introduction of vocational training for professional drivers in the transport industry.

The Driver Testing and Standards Authority Bill 2004 has completed Second Stage in the Dáil. Amendments to the Bill are being drafted to give effect to the wider functions being assigned to the authority and the Bill is to be renamed the Road Safety Authority Bill 2004.

A project team is in place in my Department to progress the establishment of the authority. Issues relating to staffing, the organisational structure and the financial arrangements for the new authority are being dealt with by the project team in consultation with the staff associations and the Department of Finance.

I expect that the authority will be established on a statutory footing in 2006. However, in the interim I am arranging that the necessary structures be developed with the support of the acting chief executive who has already been appointed. Pending the establishment of the authority, I propose to appoint an interim board shortly to facilitate the transitional phase of the establishment process.

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