Minister of State for Road Transport Seán Canney has told the Road Safety Authority (RSA) he was concerned about its “lack of visibility” following a series of road deaths late last year.The Galway East TD, who represents the Independents in Government at Cabinet, told the RSA in a letter last November that “the lack of a prominent spokesperson from the RSA in the media, and a timely response to these events, has been notable”.He was writing in the aftermath of incidents in counties Louth and Meath when five young people and the drivers of a bus and coach killed in November. He told RSA chairperson Anne Graham there had been extensive media coverage in which both crashes were framed as part of “a worrying trend in serious road accidents” with commentators highlighting the need for stronger measures to prevent such tragedies. “Given the RSA’s statutory responsibilities with regard to road safety and awareness, the lack of prominent, public-facing communication is a concerning omission and inconsistent with the authority’s mandate,” he wrote. In a replying letter, Graham told Canney that linking recent deaths and serious injuries to long-term trends could be “perceived as insensitive or prematurely apportioning blame”. However, she said that after discussions with RSA chief executive Sam Waide it was accepted the organisation could have sought a specific opportunity to provide an overview of trends and developments and said he or a spokesperson would respond publicly in future.[ Inbuilt breathalysers in cars get Road Safety Authority backing as road deaths rise ]Graham also said that while the RSA did not have a high-profile presence in the media at the time, it was communicating regularly with the media and was in touch with the communications team in An Garda Síochána while authorising additional campaigns in the run-in to Christmas. The letters were released following a Freedom of Information request. In a statement, Canney said he was working on reform of the RSA and had presented its board with a number of proposals which it is considering.He said he would bring proposed reforms to Government shortly. On Wednesday, the RSA told the Oireachtas transport committee it was in favour of introducing new alcohol interlocks for cars. These would prevent anyone with a certain level of alcohol on their breath from being able to start the engine. It also indicated it did not support a decision by the Department of Transport to allow each local authority to opt into a 30km/h limit for urban areas rather than setting a blanket limit. Officials raised concerns about a drop in roads policing gardaí, with director of research Michael Rowland telling politicians there were about 641 officers, a decline from a figure of more than 1,000 a number of years ago. In addition, Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman called on the Government on Wednesday to take a different approach and explain what steps it was going to take to resource and restructure the RSA. He told RTÉ that the RSA was dealing with driver test delays while also trying to save lives on the roads. “There’s too many different jobs being done by the one organisation, at a time when last year we had the highest number of road fatalities in many years. It’s not working,” he said.