THE REPUBLIC’S long-awaited network of speed cameras will be rolled out next summer after a €65 million five-year contract was signed by the Government and a private sector consortium yesterday.
The development comes almost 11 years after the cameras were first promised, by the Fianna Fáil-led government in 1998.
Under the agreement, signed with the GoSafe consortium, 45 mobile cameras will provide more than 6,000 hours of speed checks per month across the country.
The checks will be performed at about 700 locations identified by the Garda as emergency black spots. The consortium, led by the Spectra company, will be directed by the Garda. The project will be run by gardaí operating in the new Garda Office for Safety Camera Management.
The camera system, which is the first time the Garda has been involved in a public-private partnership, will be in place by next May or June. As part of the contract signed at the Garda College, Templemore, Co Tipperary, yesterday, GoSafe will also survey accident black spots with a view to making them safer.
The new contract will have no impact on speeding enforcement currently carried out by the Garda. The force uses eight mobile cameras in vans, 400 hand-held speeding devices and more than 100 automatic number plate recognition cameras in Garda cars that can be used for speed checks.
Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said the GoSafe consortium was being paid a “flat fee”. There was no provision for commission or bonuses irrespective of how many motorists were caught speeding. “The cameras are being introduced not to raise revenue but to stop speeding on our roads,” Mr Ahern said.
Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy said while speeding enforcement had been increased in recent years, speed was still the biggest factor in road deaths.
The new cameras would result in increased enforcement, particularly on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The hours between midnight and 3am would also see a concentration of resources.
Mr Murphy said just 3 per cent of speed checks provided by the new cameras would be on motorways and dual carriageways. Some 50 per cent would be on national roads with the remainder on non-national roads. The locations of many of the cameras would be posted on the Garda website.
Mr Ahern and Mr Murphy were also in Templemore for the passing out ceremony for 84 Garda reservists. The class included 12 foreign nationals from Australia, Cameroon, India, Pakistan, Poland and Lithuania.