An automated system to detect speeding drivers will be introduced in Dublin tomorrow. When fully operational later this year, it should be able to process up to 600 speeding fines a week in the city.
A single unit of the new equipment, called the GATSO system, will be in operation in Dublin within the next few weeks.
It consists of radar and video surveillance equipment which will be contained in a van parked at the side of a road. It automatically detects vehicle speeds and registrations.
The system will be introduced quietly, and no details will be released about the vans being used to carry it.
The information will be processed by computer, and the offending driver will know of his or her detection when a fine arrives in the post from the Traffic Office in O'Connell Street.
It is the first automatic traffic detection system to be used by the Garda Siochana.
If the tests with the first GATSO van prove successful another four or five vehicles will be introduced in the next few months in Dublin.
When fully operational it is estimated the system could process 500 to 600 fines a week from the computerised system in the O'Connell Street Traffic Office.
The force has been operating an on-the-spot fines system outside Dublin since July last year.
This consists mainly of static road checks with officers gauging speeds on hand-held radars. An estimated 52,000 drivers received on-the-spot fines as a result of this operation from July last year.
The operation in country areas coincided with major efforts to target dangerous drivers in order to reduce road deaths, which are running at 450 to 500 a year.
While the 'manual' speeding checkpoints will continue in the countryside the Garda traffic branch will also introduce static cameras along stretches of national routes later this year.
It is understood the first of these will be placed on stretches of motorway. There is no plan yet to use the GATSO vans in the countryside.