RSA accused of displaying 'appalling disrespect' to people with disabilities

The new advert depicts a young driver who has been banned from driving literally being carried on the shoulders of his friends, girlfriends, and mother with the tagline ‘lose your licence, lose your independence’.

The Road Safety Authority (RSA) has been accused of displaying “appalling disrespect” to people with disabilities after a controversial new ad campaign equated someone losing their driving licence with losing their independence.

The new advert depicts a young driver who has been banned from driving literally being carried on the shoulders of his friends, girlfriends, and mother with the tagline ‘lose your licence, lose your independence’.

The advert concludes with the man in question leaving his place of work while carrying his belongings having informed his mother that “they found out”.

When you lose your licence, you become reliant on other people to take you where you need to go and you become a burden for others.
If you get caught drink or drug driving, you will be disqualified 🚫
🔗 https://t.co/bqecGYVfkN#RoadSafety #DriveSafely #VisionZero pic.twitter.com/fs9iQZtJIi

— RSA Ireland (@RSAIreland) August 19, 2024

Government TD Neasa Hourigan criticised the advert campaign, saying it is “just horrible to see State money funding something so disrespectful to people with disabilities”. She called for the RSA to be disbanded. 

A parent of a child with disabilities herself, Ms Hourigan said on X, formerly Twitter, that “people who cannot or do not drive are not a burden”.

Ireland has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities which means the State is bound to uphold those rights.

Lack of engagement

Ms Hourigan said that the ad “should be deleted”, but said that the problems she perceives with the RSA “are not an issue of reform”.

“This issue of their lack of engagement, and their car-centric view of the world, has been outlined to them time and time again," she said.

Neasa Hourigan criticised the advert campaign. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins Photos

“I don’t think it’s an issue of reform, the culture of the organisation is such that reform is not enough. I think it should be disbanded, there is nothing to salvage, you just need to start again,” she added.

The Government will early next month receive the final report of consultants Indecon following its review of the RSA – a probe commissioned in March of this year on the back of a pronounced increase in the number of deaths on Ireland’s roads – a trend which has since continued unabated.

Five options

The review is set to give the Government five options in terms of how the RSA can be reformed, with Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan previously acknowledging that the authority’s functions are likely to be broken up, with driver and vehicle testing and licencing removed from its remit entirely.

The RSA had not responded to a request for comment regarding its new ad campaign at the time of publication.

Ms Hourigan was joined in her criticism by other bodies, including Epilepsy Ireland, which said it is of the opinion the campaign is “is deeply insensitive”, adding that it will be writing to the RSA to that end on behalf of Ireland’s epilepsy community.

The Irish Cycling Campaign meanwhile voiced its “deep concerns” over the advert’s “ableist language, and its trivialisation of the very serious risks posed by young, reckless drivers”.