Westmeath Community Development

 Ian O’Flynn of Westmeath Community Development was in Irish Rural links (Moate) on Thursday the 28^th of January 2010 to listen to a presentation given by Gay Byrne, Chairman of Ireland's Road Safety Authority (RSA).

Gay Byrne presented the prizes to the winners of Irish Rural Link’s first National Draw. The presentation of prizes took place following a talk on the importance of rural road safety.  

Following on from a most impressive talk from Gay on the importance of road safety and the need for a “culture of safety” in Ireland and Gay’s personal philosophies on Safety in Rural Ireland, the floor was then handed over to Noel Brett, CEO of the RSA who gave a very informative and in depth presentation on the history of road safety, where we stood and some of the innovative projects and ideas going forward.

Amongst the functions of the RSA are the promotion of road safety, research on accidents and road safety, driver testing and licensing, as well as establishing vehicle-related and other safe driving standards. The RSA is also responsible for monitoring progress of The National Road Safety Strategy (2007-2012) which aims to reduce collisions, deaths and injuries on Irish roads by 30%. Achieving this would bring Ireland in line with countries that are considered to have the safest roads in the world – such as Holland, Sweden and the UK.

A copy of the presentation made by Noel Brett, CEO of the Road Safety Authority during the morning talk on rural road safety is available here .

For more information, contact Irish Rural Link or the RSA