The new national traffic corps will go ahead despite speculation it would fall to government cutbacks, the Minister for Transport, Mr Seamus Brennan, said today.
The Minster said: "It is going to go ahead. The traffic corps is an important part of road safety and an important part of the whole [road safety] strategy".
However, he admitted its implementation would be delayed. "With the best will in the world and leaving funding aside, by the time we get the issues sorted out e.g. how involved the gardaí are, it will be the second half of next year. It will definitely not be axed, the issue is timing," said the Minister.
However, Fine Gael's spokesman on transport, Mr Denis Naughten told ireland.comthat because of Government cutbacks, the road traffic corps would not go ahead in 2003.
"Without the proper resources given to gardaí and the absence of the road traffic corps in 2003, it all makes a mockery of the penalty points system," said Mr Naughten.
The Labour Party transport spokeswoman, Ms Roisin Shortall, said: "After a week which saw another eight people killed on our roads, the revelation that the planned traffic corps is to be long-fingered by the Government is unbelievable.
"Despite promises from Minister Seamus Brennan that the corps would be established early in the new year, no funding was provided for this purpose in last week's Estimates", she said.
The co-operation of the gardaí is key to the scheme and they have expressed reservations about the new traffic corps. Gardaí say they gather a lot of information about criminal activity from Garda road blocks and would not want to lose the ability to gather that information. Road blocks would in the future be operated by the traffic corps.