Sir, - As I look out my office window in Blackrock I see cars parked on footpaths, double yellow lines, pedestrian crossings and bus stops. On countless occasions I have seen gardai pass by without the slightest effort to enforce the law. The blocking of pedestrian and cyclist crossings before and after junctions seems to be perfectly acceptable - indeed, it is so common that one would be forgiven for believing that it is mandatory. Gardai have turned a blind eye so often to traffic law infringements that there is now effectively no traffic law. The whole atmosphere of noncompliance is a direct result of the failure of gardai to fulfill their duty and undermines their own credibility and that of the law.
Without effective law enforcement the traffic situation has degenerated into chaos. To give gardai their due they are nice and friendly, but that hardly excuses them for being ineffective. Gardai also seem utterly unaccountable for their failure to even observe the law - apparently the double and treble parking of cars outside Garda stations or the parking of Garda cars in a clearway on O'Connell Street during peak-hour traffic as gardai queue in a fast-food restaurant is deemed to be acceptable. During the last election Fianna Fail promised a "zero tolerance" policy on crime. In Government, it has delivered zero enforcement in the area of traffic management. How far chaos must the traffic situation be allowed to descend before the Government and Garda take traffic offences seriously? - Yours, etc.,
David Maher, Kennelworth Road, Rathgar, Dublin 6.