This was Noel Brett's message in the Sunday Tribune earlier this year when it became apparent that the RSA's strategy to reduce fatalities on Irish roads was actually working after a two-year spike in 2004 and 2005. It is with such stark language and soundbites that Brett . . . CEO of the RSA . . . does his job, sending a message to Irish people that more can be done to clean up our driving, and becoming the main researcher and developer of policy that saves lives.

The new Road Safety Strategy, announced late last month, aims to save a further 400 lives in five years.

Brett has an 'anything is possible' gung-ho attitude towards his job. But by including a detail in the new five-year Road Safety Strategy that would see learner drivers banned from driving unaccompanied, he showed his political naivety . . . although it could be argued transport minister Noel Dempsey should have been savvy enough to have seen the impossible was being attempted.

It was the first mis-step for the passionate young head of one of the country's most important and closely examined agencies.

Brett is a native of Castlebar, Co Mayo and attended St Patrick's National School and St Gerald's Secondary School in the town. He moved to Dublin as a student, earning a social science degree from UCD and then, like many of his peers, emigrated to England. At Christchurch University in Canterbury, he took a postgraduate degree in social work and went on to work for Kent County Council and the London Borough of Newham in the childcare sector for a decade.

When a job for general manager at Mayo General Hospital came up in 1999, Brett applied and got it. He rose swiftly through the ranks of management, and just two years later was appointed assistant chief executive officer. In 2004, he joined HSE management in Dublin, overseeing the transition of the various departments of health to a centralised agency. In April 2005, the then minister for transport Martin Cullen announced Brett was to become CEO designate of the Driver Testing and Standards Authority.

Brett was selected after a public competition and was recommended to Cullen by the Public Appointments Service. It was his first foray into the area of transport, if you don't count his interest in vintage cars and membership of the Connaught Veteran Vintage Car Club.

At the time, road safety policy in Ireland was disintegrating.

The conflict between Martin Cullen and Eddie Shaw, the chairman of the authority that had responsibility for road safety . . . the National Safety Council . . . encapsulated the state's rudderless approach to lowering deaths on our roads.

Shaw resigned in November 2005 in protest at the lack of support he was receiving from the government and the lack of progress being made. Before Shaw had been Cartan Finegan who, after commissioning a report to show how much the state would save if it implemented a road safety strategy, was not reappointed to the position. It could be said that the gig was a bit of a poisoned chalice.

Shaw's spats with the departments of transport and environment highlighted the disarray of our road safety policy. The Department of Transport and the Department of the Environment needed someone a little more cooperative and Brett was their man. After an interim trial period, Brett proved himself not only to be competent enough to do the job, but also to consistently publicly side with the minister for transport. He was savvy and personable enough to assure the media and the public that things were moving in the right direction.

With the establishment of the Road Safety Authority, Brett had the huge task of overseeing the creation of an entirely new agency under the intense glare of a dissatisfied public and an accusatory media. Eddie Shaw might now be a senior consultant with Carr Communications, but it's Brett who is the slick PR man.

Road deaths were a permanent fixture in the Irish media in 2006 and it wasn't a smooth ride for Brett in his new job.

Many describe him as "evangelical" in his approach to his job. He became the friendly, polite, courteous and driven face of the RSA. Generally reachable at any time and for any length to the media, he is a passionate speaker and wellresearched in international road safety policy. He can ream off any amount of statistics and studies at any given time to prove his point in an engaging manner.

Brett's core belief is that the only way to reduce fatalities and injuries on Irish roads is to instill a change in the Irish public. He is big on personal responsibility and has managed to convince both the government and the gardai that to save lives many agencies will need to work together and to take the issue seriously. A rejuvenated advertising campaign to highlight road safety and the introduction of random breath testing have begun to show results.

By the end of 2007, it is forecast that fatalities on Irish roads will be down a massive 20% on last year. The new Road Safety Strategy, despite skimping on some of Brett's other promises like combating drug driving, outlines serious and ambitious plans including the national roll out of the garda traffic corps by the end of 2008. The shambles of the learner licence plans last week may have reflected badly on him in the short term, but his public loyalty to the minister for transport and support for the department, coupled with his unwavering determination to bring Ireland up to best international practice of road safety, means such a slip will be forgiven.

CV Occupation: CEO of the Road Safety Authority In the news: The RSA organisation has just published a new Road Safety Strategy