Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ms Hilman mentioned the expansion of hours for the GoSafe vans. That is fine, but I have always regarded them as one-trick ponies, unfortunately. They watch one thing and that is speed whereas a member of An Garda Síochána monitoring traffic monitors everything. If there are people moving drugs, travelling in a stolen car, stealing farm machinery or up to anything, gardaí can monitor that. I always felt it was a kind of privatisation of the service. Although there is a role for that, unfortunately in the last decade the main traffic-monitoring function has gone to GoSafe vans rather than to An Garda Síochána. The reduction in road policing numbers is evidence of that. When Ms Hilman says that road policing numbers are going to go up, that is very welcome.

Reference has been made to the 30 minutes that each member is expected to spend on road policing duties. When I speak to members of An Garda Síochána on the ground, they tell me they are practically doing that anyway. In a real situation, the vast majority of gardaí are doing a certain amount of road policing as part of their daily functions. Perhaps there needs to be more emphasis on it - that is not a problem - but we need to get to a situation where we have more gardaí monitoring traffic for all the reasons that have been mentioned, including safety on the road.

Speed cameras and static cameras have been mentioned. Static cameras will only work on motorways where there are a limited number of places where cars can go on and off the road. Motorway traffic generally moves from point A to point B. However, 70% of our collisions are happening on back roads and rural roads, where those kinds of camera systems cannot be deployed.

Is there an issue there? I wonder because so many of the collisions happening where people are distracted while driving or intoxicated while driving. Is there technology that can be used? I think in other jurisdictions there is technology used, certainly with fleet vehicles like trucks, and there is an actual camera in the cab. It monitors the driver and sends an alert if they are doing something wrong like using a mobile phone. Are there any thoughts of going that direction?