The Government intends to have the first of 300 privatised speed cameras in operation on Irish roads by the end of this year, on foot of a series of road traffic reforms announced yesterday.
The reforms, contained in a new Road Traffic Bill, will also see the introduction of random or mandatory breath testing, the banning of hand-held mobile telephones, and higher penalties for serious road traffic offences.
Announcing the legislation, Minister for Transport Martin Cullen said the Government would have the proposals passed into law shortly after the Dáil returns from its summer break next October.
He said he did not envisage any legal problems relating to the new laws, and believed they were robust.
"The Attorney General has put a lot of work into this, and there is a very good chance of withstanding any challenges," he said.
Describing it as "tough, necessary and sensible", Mr Cullen said the legislation would be combined with an increase in Garda enforcement, arising out of a significant increase in the number of gardaí in the Traffic Corps.
He also said the privatisation of speed cameras was a "key measure" and that research from Britain suggested that the deployment of cameras at black spots reduced road fatalities and injuries by over 35 per cent.
The legislation will enable gardaí to set up roadblocks at locations and require all drivers stopped at it to undergo breath tests. At present a driver can be breath tested only when a garda forms the opinion he or she has been drinking.
Under the new proposals, a mandatory breath-test roadblock can be established at the agreement of a Garda chief superintendent if he or she believes there is a likelihood of drink driving taking place at a certain place or time.
In a bid to increase the enforcement rate, some offenders will have the option of paying a fixed fine and receiving an automatic six-month ban, as an alternative to going to court and facing a minimum 12-month ban.
This option will be offered to first-time offenders who are no more than 25 per cent over the limit.
Fines on conviction for drink driving will increase from a maximum of €2,500 to a maximum of €4,000.
The disqualification period for people convicted of serious road offences and hit-and-run offences will be doubled to four years.
A loophole which currently prevents gardaí from impounding foreign-registered cars being driven without tax or insurance, will also be closed off.
A section introducing major reforms of the provisional licensing system, including mandatory lessons and the banning of provisional licence holders driving unaccompanied, is also included. However, this section will not be implemented until the current test backlog is cleared.
Yesterday a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice said detailed plans for the privatisation of speed cameras were being advanced as a priority in the department and an operator would be identified in the coming months. The operator, who will be paid on a fixed fee rather than a percentage basis, will run the camera scheme under the direction of Garda management.
The department aims to have the first private cameras in operation by the end of the year, she said. When fully operational, the privatised system will include over 300 cameras, most of which will be mobile.
They will target up to 600 locations, many of which have been identified by local gardaí and the National Roads Authority as accident and high-speed black spots.