Ms Noirín O'Sullivan:

I thank the committee for the opportunity to appear before it in my capacity as Accounting Officer for the Garda Vote to discuss the findings of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s Annual Report 2012 and in particular Chapter 8 concerning the management of outsourced safety cameras. I have furnished the committee with a briefing document on this matter and, as such, will keep these remarks brief, as requested.
It is important to state that the outsourcing of safety cameras has played a critical role in reducing road deaths and improving the safety of our roads. Since its introduction in November 2010, the safety camera project has in a targeted, systematic and transparent way led to a reduction in fatal collisions and improved speed limit compliance rates in the zones in which they are located. For example, in the five years prior to their introduction, approximately 30% of fatal collisions annually occurred in particular zones. In 2013, there was a 40% reduction of fatal collisions in these zones – this was a saving of 23 lives. In addition, survey data from these zones in 2011 showed that average compliance rates across all speed limits was 81%. By January this year, the compliance rate was 95% - or a 17% improvement.
To ensure that these improvements are maintained, the designation of areas of road as speed enforcement zones is kept under constant review and collision data is analysed to identify where they will be most effective in influencing driver behaviour. The location of all 727 speed enforcement zones nationally is available to the public on garda.ie. These safety cameras are operated by GoSafe under the direction of An Garda Síochána. An Garda Síochána has responsibility for the scheduling of monitoring and survey sessions, with the superintendent at the Garda National Traffic Bureau, GNTB, having responsibility for ensuring oversight of the day to day running of the project. This takes place in the office for safety camera management, OSCAM.
OSCAM monitors the performance of GoSafe daily across a range of areas. Any issues with individual safety camera sessions are notified by GoSafe to OSCAM on a daily basis, which allows for any potential issues to be dealt with quickly.

Regular meetings are also held with GoSafe management to ensure compliance with the contract in areas such as key performance indicators, service performance, roster performance, and court performance. This approach ensures that the GoSafe contract is fully monitored and upheld by An Garda Síochána. GoSafe is contracted to provide 7,475 hours of monitoring and surveying per month. Since June 2011, GoSafe has consistently exceeded the contractual requirement and all shortfalls in session hours prior to that date have been recouped by the State at no cost. In total, more than 275,000 hours of enforcement have been completed by GoSafe since the project’s launch.

The safety camera project is achieving its overall aim of reducing speed-related collisions and, therefore, saving lives. Less than ten years ago, in 2005, there were 396 road deaths. In 2013, there were 190 road deaths. While, regrettably, the number of road deaths did increase in 2013, it still remains the third lowest number of fatalities ever recorded. While it is never easy to speak about the loss of life and death in monetary terms, this reduction in fatal and serious injury collisions has also generated savings to the State. As stated in the Road Safety Strategy 2007-2012, the ESRI estimates the cost of a fatality at €2.28 million and that of a serious injury at €305,000. The total cost of fatal road collisions in the period 2000–2005 was €4.704 billion and the cost of serious injuries was €4.659 billion.

The safety camera system has proven to be one of a number of effective enforcement and education methods employed by An Garda Síochána during the past ten years to reduce road deaths in this country. Working in close collaboration with our partner the Road Safety Authority, An Garda Síochána is committed to continuing this work to make our roads safer for all.