Gardaí are forced to break the law instead of upholding it because of the Government's failure to enact appropriate road traffic legislation for speeding, the Dáil was told.
Fine Gael's justice spokesman, Mr Jim O'Keeffe, said the Road Traffic Act 2002 had put gardaí in an "impossible situation" because it required that radar speed detection guns must have a paper print-out of speeds.
However the equipment issued to gardaí did not have that facility.
The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, said gardaí had 408 speed detection units which were purchased between December 1995 and January 2002.
The issue arose following the recent court case which ruled that the use of radar speed detection guns was invalid without a paper print-out of the speed.
There was concern that up to 60,000 cases could be affected, said the Minister.
Mr McDowell said the Department of Transport had sought legal advice from the Attorney General "on the implications for the use of speed detection units, including the question as to whether a change to the Road Traffic Act is required. If an amendment to the Act is required, I understand the Minister for Transport is likely to include it in the Road Traffic Bill which is due to be published shortly."
Mr O'Keeffe asked why the 2002 Act did not conform to the standard of existing equipment or if it was planned to change the equipment when the legislation was passed.
Mr McDowell said that the equipment was in place first and "in that regard, one would expect the Act to deal with the reality on the ground rather than the other way round".
When Mr O'Keeffe said gardaí had been put in an impossible position being forced to break the law "as a consequence of the Government's failure to enact road traffic legislation which conformed to the equipment being used", Mr McDowell said he did not wish at this stage "to concede the point that the Act has the meaning suggested by the deputy".
The Minister said that it was not the first occasion "on which I have had to stress the importance of complete and total consultation between the Garda Síochána and the sponsoring Department", but "I am not suggestion there was no consultation in this case".
