Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

With regard to the other matter to which the Deputy referred, he will be aware that quite a hullabaloo was kicked up in respect of advertising, PR, etc., in the middle of last year. The Department of Finance decided that the funding in this regard should be cut. Every Department and agency was obliged to make cuts and the RSA, the work of which is specifically focused on advertising, was no different in this regard. I accept the Deputy's point that there is a need for me to discuss this matter with the RSA. I will do so in order to discover whether it might be possible to identify savings that might be made elsewhere in its budget. I will then try to convince the Department of Finance to allow the authority to spend the money saved on its road safety campaigns.

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