No additional speed cameras or monitoring hours have been committed to the recent addition of 390 mobile speed camera zones on the State’s roads, it has emerged.
The number of such zones – where GoSafe speed detection vans are deployed – increased from 1,511 to 1,901 since the beginning of January.
In a recent response to a Dáil question from Fine Gael TD Michael Murphy, Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan said the mobile safety camera programme continued to operate using the same number of cameras and monitoring hours as last year.
The cameras and hours of monitoring are delivered under contract by GoSafe on behalf of the Garda.
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On December 23rd last, days before road fatalities reached a 10-year high, the Garda announced that the number of areas monitored by vans would increase by 390.
“I am informed by the Garda authorities that the mobile safety camera programme continues to operate using an existing fleet of 58 mobile safety cameras,” the Minister said.
Mr O’Callaghan noted there were nine static speed cameras and five average speed zones in operation nationwide.
The lack of additional hours to match the increase in monitoring zones is a cause of concern for road safety campaigners. Susan Gray, founder of the Parc group, said there was a “danger of monitoring being spread too thin”.
Parc was also concerned by comments from Taoiseach Micheál Martin in the Dáil last week that the number of Garda members in the roads policing unit was 638, down 400 from the 1,046 dedicated in 2009. Mr Martin said recruitment was ongoing.
He paid tribute to the Garda for its Christmas road safety campaign which, he said, involved 10,000 checkpoints, 765 arrests, 3,000 vehicles seized under road traffic legislation and the issuing of 26,000 speeding fines.
However, Ms Gray said Parc was concerned that when a Garda special enforcement operation was put in place, significant numbers of cases of speeding and intoxicated driving were discovered. “What is happening when there is no special enforcement; are offenders just getting away with it?” she asked.
The Garda press office said it “reviews the operation of the mobile safety camera programme with GoSafe on a monthly basis, in order to determine the most effective deployment of mobile safety vans in line with real-time trends.”
