Road Safety Authority spent €44m on advertising as Irish road deaths climb

As of Friday morning of gardaí's bank holiday weekend operation, 20 people were arrested for drink or drug driving, 760 drivers were detected speeding, and more than 90 drivers were caught holding a mobile phone or not wearing a seatbelt. File picture: Sasko Lazarov /RollingNews.ie

The amount of money spent by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) on advertising has increased by 132% in the last five years, as road deaths continue to rise.

With the number of people who have died on Irish roads in 2026 already higher than the same period last year, gardaí have implored people to drive safely this bank holiday weekend.

Figures provided to Sinn Féin’s transport spokesman Pa Daly by the RSA show expenditure on marketing and advertising rose from €3.6m in 2020 to €8.5m last year, a 132% increase.

Spending has been increasing most years, rising from €3.64m in 2020 to €5.4m in 2021, and €6.5m in 2022.

The spend dipped in 2023 to €5.7m, before increasing to €8.9m in 2024. Spending in 2025 was €8.5m, with 2026’s expenditure reaching €5.3m by July 27.

Over the five-and-a-half-year period, the RSA has spent a total of €44m on advertising and public relations.

The RSA confirmed it had engaged three contractors for communications and PR. This includes Spark Foundry, which the RSA said provided “strategic media planning and buying of all advertising for the RSA”.

This includes between 10 and 12 TV-led campaigns annually, as well as “secondary campaigns that run across other mediums such as social media, radio, video on demand, display and out of home”.

It has received payments worth €32.9m from the RSA between 2020 and July 27, 2026.

Forsman & Bodenfors, meanwhile, has been contracted for the “strategic development of creative advertising campaigns, including TV advertisements”. Its contracts have totalled €8.5m.

Drury PR, which provides “strategic public and media relations, public affairs, crisis communications, social media support, content creation”, and other services, has been paid €2.56m.

As of Friday evening, some 108 people had died on Irish roads so far in 2026, up from 95 this time last year.

Mr Daly told the Irish Examiner the RSA’s spending on communications was “extraordinary”, suggesting the current approach, “dominated by awareness-raising and campaigns is clearly not working”.

"These would be eyewatering sums in and of themselves. However, they become even more alarming when considered in the context of the rapid rise in road deaths in Ireland over the same period.

“The contrast could not be more stark — Ireland recorded a devastating 190 deaths on our roads last year, the highest figure in over a decade. This figure is set to be surpassed again this year.

“Despite the Government's ‘Vision Zero’ promise to eliminate road deaths by 2050, the trend is moving decisively in the wrong direction.”

An RSA spokesperson said expenditure had increased “in line with Government policy” and enhanced Government funding.

They also said they believed their “research-led, targeted and independently evaluated” campaigns were effective.

The spokesperson said the expenditure needed to be examined “in context”, with each fatal collision costing €3.34m. 

The total cost of fatal and serious injury collisions is more than €1bn annually.

Gardaí will continue their roads policing operation this August bank holiday weekend.

As of Friday morning, 20 people were arrested for drink or drug driving, 760 drivers were detected speeding, and more than 90 drivers were caught holding a mobile phone or not wearing a seatbelt.