Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Lowry has absented himself. He said he is meeting the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. During that meeting he will be making the case for additional funding for the Garda and the RSA to further their aims in making our roads safer. I thank Deputy Lowry for that. I thank all the witnesses for being here today for this very important discussion. I thank them for the work they do every day in making our roads safer.

Assistant Commissioner Hilman referred to the use of technology. In the 21st century the use of technology to monitor behaviour on our roads presents an extraordinarily powerful and deeply impactful opportunity to assist the RSA and particularly the Garda in its work in seeking to police our roads. Deputy Kenny mentioned the chancer who takes the opportunity on a quiet country road to overtake dangerously. Every now and again that chancer ends up colliding with another road user and we know the outcome of that. There are opportunities presenting to us now for those chancers to be caught and we are not availing of them. If we are deadly serious, as we should be, about ensuring our roads are as safe as they possibly can be, why do we continue to drag our heels in using that technology? I use the collective "we" because I, as a legislator, am as responsible as everybody else in his room. We have a number of opportunities right now.

Looking at other jurisdictions, the Devon and Cornwall Police is using Operation Snap, which is a UK-wide online portal for the submission of dashcam footage. About two thirds of that footage is submitted by motorists using cameras, on their front windscreens predominantly. The Devon and Cornwall police recently stated it has been an exceptionally successful and productive process for it to engage in the Operation Snap portal. The person responsible for road safety in the Devon and Cornwall police said something very powerful, that there are about 14,000 km of roads in Devon and Cornwall and the police cannot be everywhere but the public can. In that spirit of partnership, that particular police force has completely bought into the Operation Snap dashcam portal online process.

I am wondering about the Garda perspective. Assistant Commissioner Hilman voiced her support for such a development at another Oireachtas committee meeting last year. How close are we to that happening here? What are the obstacles preventing it from happening right now or in the medium term? Who is responsible for the elimination of those obstacles and how quickly can we get that work done?