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Michael Healy Rae, MP for Kerry, told the Dáil that the RSA had recently spent €800,000 on a TV advert for its 30km/h towns campaign.
However, Kerry County Council has only allocated €550,000 for the whole county to advance road safety initiatives, he said.
Mr Healy Rae said the 30km/h advert was a “gorgeous tourism advert for the town of Clonakilty, County Cork”, adding that it was just his personal opinion.
However, the Taoiseach disagreed with the comparison, saying “behavioural science shows the importance of these influential ads”.
Mr Healy-Ray said: “Money is being wasted on TV advertising that has little or no effect.
“We as a county council would be better off spending this money on our roads to make a real difference.
Mr Healy-Rae said: “They work hard in bad weather to keep the roads open, filling potholes, tarmac and shoulders, paving roads and doing maintenance work for all of us.”
“I want to commend everyone who was here today and acknowledge the job they did in the wet and difficult weather conditions,” he said.
The Irish Prime Minister said that the views raised by Hillary Rae on road safety were valid and important, and “we hope to build political and social consensus on road safety.”
But he added: “Everyone in this House can think of some of the influential adverts that have aired over the years and the impact they have had in sparking conversation.
“Regarding roads, I would like to point out that the €550,000 refers to five specific road projects under the road safety programme.
“The total funding we are providing to Kerry for regional and local road networks this year is €30.14 million for road safety.”
Healy-Rae also said: “The government is looking at driver behaviour and has said speed limits should be reduced from 100km/h to 80km/h, from 80km/h to 60km/h and from 60km/h to 40km/h.”
“I don’t agree with it. I would never vote for it. This simple act of political reactionary is not what we need. What we need is funding for us, like in County Kerry and every other county across the country.
“I ask the Government to think bigger, deer are roaming our roads and local authorities are not keeping hedges and trees trimmed to give us sight distance from the roads.
“If the government really wants to save lives on our roads, local authorities need to significantly increase funding for road safety schemes.”
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