Mr. John Twomey:

I will begin with the final speaker. We have what we call super MAT checkpoints where we take a main road and they would be more overt than what we normally do. We do not do them terribly often. We did one on the M50 before Christmas. We are very conscious of the health and safety aspect of such checkpoints. I am concerned by the points raised by the Senator and I will take them back and discuss them with the people involved.

He is right that An Garda Síochána is the prosecutor and the GoSafe people perform as witnesses. Any issues with the prosecution are a matter for the Garda. We have spoken with the court and on the next date the inspector in charge of the fixed penalty office will be available to the court to answer any issues that are addressed in respect any of the procedures that are followed. We have, therefore, tried to address those specific issues.

I will jump then to the first question Deputy Ellis asked. These are contractors working for An Garda Síochána. We are doing the job but we have contracted out a little of it. Our contractor provides 7,500 hours of enforcement to us every month. It is a good fit. They can do the off-road stuff; we do all the on-road, highly visible, overt enforcement. When we come back to the statistics, we had a reduction in these 727 zones of 23 road fatalities last year. That is a simple fact. As a consequence of the increase in compliance, there has been a reduction of 40% in road fatalities across these zones. There are issues around the edges regarding processes and the courts and we need to be careful and clearly oversee them but the facts speak for themselves. We are about reducing road deaths and how to achieve that.

The 12 penalty points is mandatory. There is no option around it. It is an administrative, court process. Once a driver reaches 12 points, he or she loses his or her licence. The zones are constantly updated and we constantly review, check and examine the collision data to see if another area in the road network pops up. We have made public even here today the results of the past few years. Speed compliance has increased by 40% in these areas and road fatalities have reduced by 40. They are the results.

We will take away the issue of making the details of the equipment public and give it serious consideration. There is no doubt that road traffic legislation is among the most hotly debated. It is something we constantly monitor. We also monitor court cases on a daily basis, irrespective of whether the Garda is involved. The Garda is responsible for all these prosecutions and, therefore, we monitor what develops in a court case closely and where are there are issues of concern, we look at how we can improve the process. If we need to do so, we will. We have done that on many occasions. If there is a more fundamental difficulty, we have to come back to a forum such as this where we need legislative amendment. The 2010 Act, which was mentioned, will address the issues relating to postal service. That will make it a little tighter for people in that the certificate of postage will now be accepted by the court if the notice has not been delivered. The legislation constantly evolves. The third payment option was discussed earlier, which means people can pay the fine within a certain timeframe rather than go to court.

OSCAM was set up when this project started and Superintendent O'Donohue is directly in charge of it. He reports directly to me and Chief Superintendent O'Sullivan and, therefore, there is a direct line of communication. We have meetings on a daily basis and address any issues that arise with the equipment. It is closely monitored and audited and a number of changes have been introduced in the processes as the contract has evolved. It is the first time in the world that such a contract has been introduced where enforcement has been subcontracted directly by the enforcement agency. The results are positive.

The reduction in the traffic corps is a topical issue. As everyone in this room is well aware, An Garda Síochána and every other State body has reduced budgets and reduced staffing. That has necessitated us trying to streamline and look at different ways of operating. That is the space we operate in and that is the challenge we face. While we have 800 people in the traffic corps, the force still has 13,000 members. Every member of An Garda Síochána is responsible for the enforcement of the Road Traffic Acts and ensuring compliance when they are on duty. It is still quite a number of people. We have worked with other agencies to improve our processes and to make it easier for us to operate on the roads. Certain efficiencies have been gained. During the first quarter in 2014 there was an increase in enforcement compared to the same period last year in all areas of road traffic - speeding, mobile phone use, drink driving and seat belts. Resources are a constant challenge and we constantly review them. Hopefully, there will be recruitment later this year which will provide greater opportunities for us. We will monitor resources closely.

Issues that are raised in the courts come directly to us. We deal with and take appropriate action.