Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 15 July 2026
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport
Road Safety: Discussion (Resumed)
2:00 am
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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The purpose of today's meeting is to resume our focused discussion around road safety. Our engagement is with the leadership team of An Garda Síochána. On behalf of the committee I am pleased to welcome Mr. Justin Kelly, Commissioner; Dr. Shawna Coxon, deputy commissioner with responsibility for policing operations; and Ms Catharina Gunne, assistant commissioner with responsibility for governance and accountability. The format of the meeting is that we will hear Mr. Kelly's opening statement followed by a question and answer session with members of the committee. I ask that members are concise with their questions to allow witnesses the opportunity to participate.
Witnesses are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice that they should not criticise or make charges against any person or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable or otherwise engage in speech that might be regarded as damaging to the good name of that person or entity. Therefore, if witnesses' statements are potentially defamatory in relation to an identifiable person or entity, they will be directed to discontinue their remarks. It is imperative that they comply with this direction.
I remind members of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person outside the Houses or an official by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.
Members will have seven minutes each for questions and answers. I welcome the leadership team of An Garda Síochána. This is the conclusion of a set of focused meetings the committee has undertaken since earlier this year. We have met with vulnerable road users, other road users, academics, the Medical Bureau of Road Safety and other stakeholders including the Road Safety Authority. We have discussed many issues including enforcement, the strength of our road policing unit, the use of technology, legislative reform, the need for tougher legislation, emergency response and safer infrastructure education. After today's meeting, we hope to begin work on a draft report over the summer recess.
This final report will include a set of recommendations that we hope the Government will implement in a timely manner. I acknowledge the men and women of An Garda Síochána on the ground. I am very conscious that they are the first on the scene of fatal and serious collisions. I acknowledge their dedication and commitment but, more importantly, that their perspective really matters in terms of the work we are trying to do here as a committee. I invite the Commissioner to make his opening statement.
Mr. Justin Kelly:
I thank the Cathaoirleach for his comments about the members of An Garda Síochána. I thank the committee members for the invitation to appear before them today to discuss road safety. Road safety is a key policing and public safety priority for An Garda Síochána. Every fatal or serious injury collision has devastating consequences for victims, their families and loved ones, and ripples out to their communities. While significant progress was achieved over many years in reducing fatalities on Irish roads, recent trends demonstrate the need for continued enforcement, education, prevention and partnership.
Provisional Garda figures indicate that in the first six months of 2026, there were 83 fatal collisions, resulting in the loss of 87 lives. This compares with 78 fatalities during the same period in 2025. Over the same period, the number of serious injury collisions have reduced from 761 to 613. I am very conscious that when we speak about these figures, behind each one is a person, a family and a community affected by tragedy. For An Garda Síochána, our focus is on preventing those harms through visible policing, targeted enforcement, public engagement and partnership.
An Garda Síochána is a key delivery partner under the Government’s Road Safety Strategy 2021-2030 and supports Vision Zero. Our role is focused on enforcement, prevention, visibility and supporting safer behaviour on our roads. Analysis of fatal and serious injury collisions continues to identify the main behavioural risks as speeding, drink and drug driving, driver distraction through mobile phone use, failure to wear seat belts and risks affecting vulnerable road users, including pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.
Roads policing activity is informed by collision analysis, enforcement trends, traffic volumes and emerging risks, and is focused on the offences most closely associated with fatal and serious injury collisions. This includes mandatory intoxicant testing, MIT, checkpoints, speed enforcement, targeted patrols, and operations focused on mobile phone and distracted driving, uninsured drivers, commercial vehicle enforcement and personal-powered transporters, including e-scooters. While dedicated roads policing units provide specialist capability, road safety is a responsibility across An Garda Síochána. Garda personnel across every division support road safety through high-visibility policing, proactive enforcement, checkpoints, public engagement and education.
In the first six months of 2026, Garda personnel carried out more than 25,000 MIT checkpoints, more than 93,000 breath tests and more than 5,600 oral fluid tests. Driving while intoxicated incidents increased by 11% compared with the same period in 2025. To the end of May, detections for mobile phone use while driving increased by 23%, while non-intercept speed detections also increased significantly year on year.
Roads policing is an area of sustained focus for me and for the senior leadership team in An Garda Síochána. We have put considerable work into an implementation plan focused on strengthening oversight, enhancing resources and training, and embedding a culture of accountability and high standards. As part of this work, community engagement superintendents will have roads policing assigned as part of their portfolios and each roads policing unit will have a dedicated inspector. This will support greater consistency, supervision and support to our personnel across divisions.
We are also continuing to improve the use of data, technology and fleet capability in roads policing. This includes 143 automatic number plate recognition, ANPR, enabled roads policing vehicles, roadside drug testing equipment, evidential breath testing devices, static safety cameras and the GoSafe safety camera programme. In the first three months of 2026, access to enhanced motor insurance data supported more than one million vehicle checks by An Garda Síochána, a 17.5% increase year on year. An Garda Síochána also now has a fleet of 3,650 vehicles, the highest total in the history of the organisation. The objective is to ensure that data, technology and fleet capability support targeted enforcement, stronger oversight and public confidence.
Prevention also remains central to our approach. The lifesaver project is An Garda Síochána’s road safety education initiative for secondary school students. Since November 2023, more than 51,000 students across 318 schools have received the programme. We are conscious too that the road environment is changing. The increased use of e-scooters, e-bikes, scramblers and other forms of personal powered transport presents enforcement, safety and public awareness considerations.
Garda personnel will continue to take enforcement action where offences are detected, while supporting wider efforts to improve awareness and safe shared use of our roads. We are aware of the challenges posed in the pursuit of such vehicles and the safety considerations around this. We have a pursuit policy in place and work has been done, particularly with our control centres, to upskill our people around the management of spontaneous pursuits, but it is an area we are continuing to look at.
Road safety cannot be delivered by policing alone. An Garda Síochána continues to work closely with the Department of Transport, the Road Safety Authority, RSA, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, local authorities, the National Transport Authority, NTA, the HSE and other stakeholders. Enforcement is essential, but it must sit alongside education, safe road infrastructure, legislation, public awareness and personal responsibility.
As Commissioner, I am committed to ensuring that An Garda Síochána continues to play its part in reducing deaths and serious injuries on Irish roads. We will continue to target the behaviours that put people at risk, strengthen visibility and enforcement, improve oversight and accountability, and work with Government, agencies, communities and road users to support safer roads for all. We will also continue to impress upon all road users the importance of acting responsibly when using our roads: wear a seat belt, put away the mobile phone, maintain a safe speed for the road and weather conditions, and never drive while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. I look forward to engaging with the committee and addressing any questions members may have. I thank the Cathaoirleach.
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Commissioner. We talk an awful lot about statistics but behind each of them is a devastated family and community. In terms of the work we do here, those families are at the very heart of our thought process. Based on the speaking rota, I call Senator Joanne Collins as our first contributor.
Joanne Collins (Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Commissioner so much for being here. As he knows, we have been covering a lot of road safety over the last couple of months, so it is great to have the witnesses in to be able to answer some questions on this topic. I have one or two questions on roads policing numbers. I could be wrong about this statistic, but I think over 80% of all accident fatalities happen on regional and local roads. Does the Commissioner have a breakdown of roads policing numbers for urban as opposed to rural settings?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
We have roads policing established divisionally. We have 21 divisions in An Garda Síochána right around the country. Every division has a roads policing unit in it, so we have rural and urban settings covered. Here in Dublin, we have a larger central unit. That is the way we have it broken down. We have 660 gardaí in total across roads policing, including our Garda National Roads Policing Bureau, GNRPB. We can certainly provide the committee with a breakdown of where all those 660 gardaí are.
Joanne Collins (Sinn Fein)
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Yes, that would be great. It is not done by population.
Mr. Justin Kelly:
No. As I said, we have it done on a divisional basis. When I took over last September, and I was following on from the previous Commissioner, we did a lot of work following the Crowe report, which I am sure the Senator is well familiar with. One of the things we started working on, which we have nearly finished, was looking at how all our roads policing units are set up and managed right across the country. As I mentioned in my opening address, one important thing for me and our senior team is that we get the best work from these 660 people. A key part of that is the management and supervision, some of which was called out in the Crowe report.
I referenced in my opening remarks that we are going to have is a dedicated inspector. That will be a middle management person for every one of these units. At present, we have a mixed bag whereby we have dedicated inspectors for some units where that is all they are doing, while in other divisions the inspector would be doing regular policing duties with a portfolio for roads policing also. This means he or she is not giving it his or her full attention, and that is one of the key things for us.
We are also putting it under a superintendent in every division. The whole point for us at senior management level is to have a key cohort of management we can bring together - all those superintendents and inspectors - to deliver the message of what we want done on roads policing.
I might turn to the deputy or assistant commissioner to talk about our structures. We have done quite a lot around this, so I will turn to Dr. Coxon on that.
Dr. Shawna Coxon:
Going to the heart of the Senator's question, roads policing exists in every area of the country. We have put some new structures in place to try to give assurance around what that looks like. One of them is that locally, assistant commissioners can move people in and out of units, based on their needs. We found that led to a slight differential in numbers in roads policing. In the past eight months or so, we have made it so that we control who goes in, and anybody coming out has to be reported up to the centre - by the way, this is the only unit where this happens - so that we can look at what the needs are across the country to ensure there are no gaps.
Assistant Commissioner Gunne, who is here, has also done a lot of work on vehicles for the same reason, to ensure vehicles are where they need to be, with the roads policing units right across the country. The new structures the Commissioner has talked about will help with management, etc., but this is also the only unit where we are tightly controlling the numbers at the centre, that is, how many people are in these units and specifically where they are.
Joanne Collins (Sinn Fein)
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I have two questions around technology. We had a group before the committee who were speaking about breathalyser tests fitted into cars, whereby you cannot start the car unless you pass. Would it be a good idea if those were installed in all cars?
Ms Catharina Gunne:
Yes, all that technology comes up. An Garda Síochána is represented at the road safety leadership group, and on that group, we have discussions relating to interlocks and all of that. From an An Garda Síochána perspective, that would be a preventative measure, and of course, it would be welcomed, but there is the legislative element and all of that.
That road safety leadership group is about that all-encompassing interdepartmental government approach. If it was brought in, of course, it would be welcomed.
Joanne Collins (Sinn Fein)
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The organisation would be in favour of it. Is there anything the witnesses have seen that is outside the box, or that we have not touched on, that would improve road safety, outside of the obvious such as education and policing? I know boots on the ground are a good deterrent for road safety, but is there anything that is not being done within the system that needs to be done?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
From a legislative point of view, one very important thing is that the men and women of An Garda Síochána going out to police our roads should have more protections, particularly around pursuit or prosecutions relating to road traffic incidents. Around ten gardaí are currently being prosecuted for road traffic offences that occurred while they were on duty. They went to work and, for whatever reason, something happened during their tour of duty. There has been an investigation - these investigations are usually carried out by Fiosrú, the police ombudsman - which has resulted in the prosecution of gardaí for their actions while on duty. We see many of these go through court processes, and in some cases the gardaí are acquitted after this.
From my point of view as Garda Commissioner, it is very important that gardaí can go out to do their work and have the protections they need in place.
Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)
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I managed to catch most of the Commissioner's interaction with the justice committee yesterday, and it will be very important that the transcript of that committee is reviewed in detail for our report. I will not go back over his contributions now, but I thank him for his interactions. I note his request for protections relating to pursuit. I do not underestimate the challenge An Garda Síochána has, particularly around e-scooters and scramblers, and I believe we have to put in place the legislative protections to make sure we are supporting An Garda Síochána to deal with what has become a scourge on our streets. It is a real danger to all road users and pedestrians.
I am going to move on to a couple of other things, beginning with accident black spots. I recently dealt with a constituent who had been involved in an accident. She rang the gardaí, who did not come or were not able to come. The fire brigade came and noted to the people involved - a motorcyclist and the driver of a car - that this was an accident black spot and that there were at least four accidents there every month. My constituent could not get hold of the gardaí, so she decided to go down to the Garda station, but the gardaí were not interested. They said it was an insurance matter and no one was dead. To be honest, that is a real concern. We have to have a way of tracking how many accidents are happening and where. We will never redesign roads or put in place the safety procedures if these are not being tracked, and my understanding is that route to track them is through the Garda.
If people are getting responses like that when they contact An Garda Síochána - and I am not sure; maybe 999 picked it up instead - I need clarity on this. I have a huge concern as to how the data is being recorded and whether it is complete.
Mr. Justin Kelly:
Obviously, I do not know the details of the individual case, but I am very disappointed to hear that gardaí told a member of the public that they were not interested, for whatever reason. I would be very disappointed to hear that.
On black spots for collisions, after every fatality or collision leading to a fatality, we complete a detailed form on the road conditions, and we record a whole range of issues on that. We submit that to the local authorities, because the construction of roads and road design are obviously matters for them, but we certainly feed that in. I have discussed some of these cases with the deputy commissioner. We have seen some fatal accidents that have been in the exact same place where previous fatal accidents have occurred.
I might hand over to the deputy commissioner, who has done a bit of work on this, but I completely share the Deputy's concern for these accident black spots. Before I hand that over, one thing these locations feed into is the locating of speed vans. I know that is something the committee will be interested in, but I might hand over to the deputy commissioner on that.
Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)
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Before we do, I note the Commissioner's comments on fatalities. This is a residential area so, thankfully, cars are not going exceptionally fast. As far as I know, there have not been any fatalities, but that is not to say there is not a serious issue here, particularly with motorcyclists going into the bus lane and not realising cars are turning the other way, with people unable to see them because the motorbikes are coming so fast.
It has to be more than just where there are fatal incidents. It has to be where we are seeing repeated accidents, no matter the scale.
Dr. Shawna Coxon:
The analytics we tend to publish relate to serious injuries and fatalities. We also have our community engagement personnel, who look at where these accidents are occurring on an ongoing basis. As the Commissioner said, we use that with respect to where to put GoSafe vans, but also where to carry out checkpoints and enforcement.
We have really worked hard in the last couple of years to ensure that enforcement matches need. There are a number of areas that feed into that, if that gives comfort. Certainly, some of our community engagement meetings, etc. would be specific to this. There are two things to note. We have roads policing come up at every performance assurance meeting now across the country. Every assistant commissioner is looking at the statistics but also is hearing from all of the members of An Garda Síochána, from right across the region, to ensure that our enforcement is matching where these incidents are occurring. For all of those reasons, I am quite disappointed as well to hear that somebody went in and was not able to report it. However, I would expect that through these other channels, we would be taking that in as part of our enforcement.
Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)
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There is another issue that has been raised with me. I have written to the Minister for Transport and have tabled questions for the attention of the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration on motorbikes. A constituent of mine who is a motorbike user has alerted me to the fact that motorbike licence plates are being deliberately obscured. Since he has alerted me to it I have witnessed it in the form of plates being tilted up or smeared over and that gives me a huge cause for concern. Is An Garda Síochána seeing this as an issue? How can this issue be resolved? I ask because I am going from pillar to post between the two Departments.
Mr. Justin Kelly:
Certainly, we have seen that as well. While the Deputy raised the issue around the motorcycles, it is actually with vehicles as well. There is a whole range of ways that people try to alter their registration plates which, primarily, is around trying to avoid detection, to avoid the automatic number plate recognition, ANPR, system used by An Garda Síochána and to avoid GoSafe. There is a whole range of issues with that. There are offences for that and clear mandatory detailing around what way a registration plate should look. Naturally, if we come across it we prosecute. Certainly, we do. The issue has been around for some time. There are other things that people do in this regard. Again, it is probably not appropriate for me to start saying the various ways that people try to avoid the cameras, but there is a whole range.
Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)
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How can we deal with it?
Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)
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Is An Garda Síochána actually looking out for it specifically and stopping people on that basis?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
Yes, absolutely. Front-line personnel are on patrol, on the regular and not just roads policing. If they see people with registration plates that are as described by the Deputy then they pull them in and deal with them. Again, I have to be realistic. Our guards, particularly the ones on the front line, are extremely busy going from call to call dealing with priority 1 calls. I am not saying that with every single observance of it they stop the person because that would not be realistic. I even see myself when I am out around, particularly here in Dublin, I often see people are pulled in and you can even see straight away that they have some unusual licence plate. I am sure that members will have seen plenty of them before. The digits are unusual or they have different things put into the licence plates.
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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I have some questions. Yesterday, I attended the meeting of the Joint Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration and heard what the Commissioner said about e-scooters. As he will know, the Government is considering a suite of options at the moment. One of those options is a complete ban on the use of e-scooters on public roads and in public spaces. Is that something the Commissioner supports? Is that his preferred option? If so, why?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
First, it is important to say that An Garda Síochána will police whatever the legislation in place is at the moment. With any new legislation, or evolving legislation, we are often asked for our views. We provide that to the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, particularly when new legislation is being enacted.
The situation with e-scooters is obviously relatively new here in this country. As Garda Commissioner, public safety is my primary concern and I certainly see a lot of things that are really concerning around e-scooters. Without a doubt, e-scooters are being used, particularly in urban centres, to facilitate localised drug dealing in communities. If anyone is observant when going around, particularly here in Dublin city centre, you can see it. We obviously try to enforce and try to prevent that, but they are really difficult for us to deal with, as members can imagine, particularly around parks and laneways. In places like this it is very easy for them to evade An Garda Síochána.
Drugs-related intimidation is an absolute scourge on some communities and there is really horrendous behaviour towards parents and relations of people who are in debt. We have seen e-scooters being regularly used for that. We have a number of cases where people have used e-scooters to call to people's houses and make their escape quickly.
Again, and I do not think I have to tell anybody this, there are road traffic regulations. People who use e-scooters are supposed to behave the exact same way as cyclists and there is a complete flouting of the road traffic legislation. One of the things, without a doubt, you can see with e-scooters, particularly at road traffic junctions, that when they come to a junction they go straight through them. Of course there is no legislation in place around the wearing of helmets. We see in some areas people wearing masks or even balaclavas when they go around communities. The effect is that in some communities e-scooters are used to terrorise local communities. Members can imagine the effect when people see two or three people wearing balaclavas while riding e-scooters.
Another issue is injuries. In the last couple of weeks the findings by some consultants in Children's Health Ireland, CHI, at Temple Street have been well publicised whereby e-scooters are the leading cause of head injuries in children.
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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Does the Garda Commissioner support an outright ban on e-scooters?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
Absolutely, yes. Now having said that, I really appreciate there are challenges with this. I appreciate that there are certainly law-abiding citizens who use e-scooters. However, for me, when I look at it in totality, the balance of it has tipped so far in that direction. I certainly do, Chair.
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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On the strength of the roads policing unit, it has come up repeatedly during our committee hearings with nearly all stakeholders. We tend to look back to 2009 and the strength of our roads policing unit at that time. The Dublin metropolitan region had the highest number of fatalities last year yet we saw the strength of the roads policing unit in March 2026, when compared to 2009, drop by 44%. The Commissioner's predecessor was before this committee in May 2024 and, in his evidence, he gave a commitment to strengthen the roads policing unit by 150 by the end of last year. Assistant Commissioner Gunne, in August or October of last year, said that only 75 of those 150 appointments were made. What is the status of that commitment?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
I would certainly go into the numbers but I think it is very important to say that roads policing is not just a sole function of the roads policing units. When we look at detections for roads policing, actually 60% of all detections are done by front-line officers. Also, 75% of all the arrests around roads policing offences are actually done by front-line officers, so not roads policing units.
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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I agree and welcome the restructuring element. What is the status of the commitment given by the predecessor of the Garda Commissioner?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
I will certainly turn to Dr. Coxon because she would be certainly around the detail and numbers. Before I do, I wish to make a quick point. The numbers that we have in roads policing is the biggest of all the specialised functions that we have in An Garda Síochána. Organised crime and immigration are two big, huge areas. There are more people in roads policing than for those two units put together.
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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I agree. What is the status of the commitment given at the committee meeting by the former Garda Commissioner, Drew Harris?
Dr. Shawna Coxon:
I would like to clarify what that commitment was because that commitment was based on the numbers increasing into An Garda Síochána. Nobody mentions the second part of that equation, which is, as we increase our numbers in An Garda Síochána, we will be able to uplift the numbers going into roads policing. To be fair, that just did not happen during the timeframe that the previous Commissioner was here. I would say that our numbers across the board now are starting to lift, which is helpful for many different areas across the organisation. I know that the Commissioner has a commitment to this as well in terms of increasing the numbers, which has been done with every class.
With every class that has come in, we have continued to put people into roads policing. We will continue to assess and do what we can. That number was always predicated on the broader commitment and Government has been supportive. As our numbers increase, we will continue to work on that.
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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I have three yes or no questions that came up yesterday. Does the Commissioner support increasing the maximum sentence for dangerous driving causing death from ten years to 14 years?
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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I mentioned yesterday we have this extraordinary situation whereby somebody disqualified for dangerous driving who also receives a prison sentence can, under existing law, serve both sentences concurrently. One is a punishment and the second is a road safety issue. Does the Commissioner agree that any road disqualification should only begin after the offender is released from prison?
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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We discuss a lot how, if a vehicle is impounded for having no insurance, the fee has remained at €125 for the past 20 years or so? Does the Commissioner support a significant increase in that fee?
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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Can the Commissioner give evidence to this committee as to the proposed fee being considered?
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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Will it be a significant increase?
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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We work closely with victims' representative bodies. I work with PARC, and I know other committee members work with it as well on Finding Your Way. Is it incorporated into existing Garda procedures to provide a copy of that to families?
Ms Catharina Gunne:
In relation a fatal road traffic collision there is an appointed family liaison officer, FLO. When the FLO meets the family they will have the PARC booklet and the Irish Road Victims Association booklet. They are passed on, and I know both organisations are commended on the work they do with victims. We engage with them.
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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We all agree with that.
Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the witnesses for being here and for their attendance yesterday. I note that the opening statement refers to the number of MIT checkpoints and breath tests in the first six months of the year. Are they aware that is a decrease on the first six months of 2025 and follows a trajectory of checkpoint and breathalyser numbers decreasing year on year to the point where Alcohol Action Ireland pointed out that in 2010 there were half a million breath tests, and we are now at approximately 190,000 per year?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
I will turn to my colleagues on this. However, when we look at the year-to-date statistics on drink-driving, they are actually up by 2%. We are arresting one driver every hour now. In the past five years, we have arrested 50,000 people for drink-driving and drugs. The drug-driving numbers year on year are up by 28%. We will address the Deputy's detailed questions but with what we are doing with arrests for drugs and drink in particular, the numbers are going in the right direction, as are some of our other lifesaver offences.
Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I will summarise that and say more offences are being detected but people have fewer chances of being breathalysed or stopped at a checkpoint. If we had more gardaí on roads policing, we would see an even greater uplift, which seems to reflect population growth, the number of vehicles on the road and how attitudes and behaviour have disimproved, including with alcohol use. Some 12% of people admit to drink-driving.
Mr. Justin Kelly:
I certainly do not disagree with the Deputy on all of that. However, I will say that the positivity rate on the MIT checkpoints is quite small. I am sure she is aware of that. It is approximately 0.4%. The mandatory intoxicant checkpoints are not where we are getting all of the arrests. We can extrapolate from 0.4%. If we continue with those, it will not make the big difference. As I have said, 75% of the arrests are coming from front-line people, regular guys and girls out doing the front-line work. That is one of the reasons we have focused on the 30 minutes of dedicated roads policing work that every front-line garda is supposed to be doing. We are trying to work through that. One thing we are close to getting done on our mobility devices is an app that records that 30-minute period for us, where we are doing it and the productivity from it. I should not say productivity. It is more about recording the detail of what we are doing in those 30 minutes. Obviously, at committees like this, we can provide a lot more detail about that.
Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Does the 30 minutes include the use of breathalysers?
Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Breathalysers are down too, though.
Dr. Shawna Coxon:
Conceptually, I agree with the Deputy and I understand what she is saying. When we look at these statistics we look at breath tests and oral fluid tests with respect to drugs, and we are seeing a shift in society where we have one moving over to the other. Certainly, we are always interested in our checkpoints and what we are doing. I have this brought up at my performance assurance meeting with every assistant commissioner across the country every month. They are bringing it up at every one of those as well. It is something we are keeping an eye on because the trend is concerning to us. We are looking at ways to make it better.
Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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However, it includes breathalysers.
Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The decrease in breathalysers then is as a direct result of the reduction in dedicated roads policing units.
Mr. Justin Kelly:
No, I would not necessarily agree with that. Like I say, the majority of the work is not done by the roads policing units. I would not draw that direct correlation. I do not know if this has ever been fully explained in public but the other thing about roads policing units is that, by their very nature, you would imagine the only duty they are doing is roads policing. That means they are enforcing all of these different things. However, the way roads policing units work in Ireland is that they do a lot of other things. For example, they do motorcycle escorts. They do events. If you go to any event, for example, the Dublin Marathon, you will see motorcycles. There are people doing that. You see people being rushed to hospital with motorcycle escorts. It is all of that type of work. Roads policing units do a lot of work, which is on top of this. The only reason I say that is because there is an absolute emphasis on roads policing units being the only way to resolve our issues on the road, which I do not think is right. It has to be across the organisation. If we look across the country, community policing is really important to us. At all of these events around the country, in all of the different constituencies and Garda divisions, roads policing people are frequently helping. They are blocking roads and doing different things.
Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I will ask a more simple question. To what does the Commissioner attach the decrease in breathalysing numbers?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
I will again turn to my colleagues. However, those numbers have come to me, and we are concerned about this. We are trying to turn it around. When you look at all the things we are doing on speeding, non-intercept speeding, mobile phones and drink- and drug-driving, everything is up. I share the Deputy's concerns. This is one aspect we certainly need to turn around. I do not disagree with her. We certainly need to do it, and we are doing it. The Deputy has a focus on it, but this is one element. We need to turn it around but there is a lot of positivity in some of the other things. Some of the increases are really positive in other areas of our roads policing, especially since the Crowe report.
We have put a lot of focus on roads policing. We talk about roads policing and different aspects of it practically every week at the senior management meetings we have every week. The assistant commissioner has presented on numerous occasions to the senior leadership team on different initiatives and different changes we are trying to make to turn all these things around. The Deputy's points are all very well made but they should be seen in the context of everything else we are doing. I have spoken already about having the highest number of vehicles we have ever had in An Garda Síochána and all the work we have done around the technology to enable us to do our job. My view is that the roads policing numbers are important. The technology, the cameras, the front line - there are a whole load of pieces within An Garda Síochána, not just the testing.
Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the witnesses for coming in and for the presentation. These meetings are all the more important given that there used to be meetings with the Garda on a local level with local councillors in my constituency. They have been stopped for a number of years. Getting to know the local superintendent and local inspector is really vital for local representatives and if meetings are not being done in a formal way, they should be encouraged in an informal way in order that we have someone to go to when there are local concerns. Issues about antisocial behaviour and roads policing come up all the time. I agree with what the Commissioner said in the opening statement about the behavioural risks. One of them is drink and drug driving. High-visibility policing, as he mentioned, is extremely important, not just on the roads but in town centres. A garda might not make one arrest in the whole week but it gives an assurance or reassurance to people who see the green jacket and see a garda on the street. It does work, maybe not in statistics - it might not come up in any report - but in satisfaction and a feeling of safety among people. It does give reassurance. On the roads then, it definitely provides a deterrence factor if gardaí are likely to be seen.
Some of the stakeholders who have appeared before the committee over the last few months have raised a number of issues. Sometimes with road collisions and fatalities, there are discrepancies between the numbers the Garda has and those the Road Safety Authority, RSA, has. Mr. Kelly might give me some detail as to why that is. Alcohol Action Ireland, for example, mentioned the European Transport Safety Council report about roadside breath testing. These numbers go back a number of years, and I heard what the Commissioner said in response to Deputy Currie's queries, but its representative stated that Ireland had 18 tests per 1,000 inhabitants whereas France had 109 and Estonia, apparently, had 576 per 1,000 annually, which is a phenomenal amount. There were 19,548 arrests in 2007. I did not quite catch what Mr. Kelly said, but I think it was around 20,000 or something. The report stated it was roughly 5,000 arrests annually, so a drop of 75% it would seem.
Going back to the high-visibility policing point with alcohol, Alcohol Action Ireland said that in Australia, 14% of driver fatalities are alcohol-related whereas in Ireland, it is 35%. There is a huge difference there. Does the Commissioner have any comments to make on those points that were made by one of the stakeholders we saw over the last number of months?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
I thank the Deputy. I will address the statistics first. First, we now publish many of our statistics. We have done a lot of work. Members will all be very familiar with statistics and the interpretation of them and how that is all done. Ms Gunne has done quite a bit of work on this so I will turn to her in a second. I would say, however, that the issue around deterrence is certainly associated with visibility. The Deputy made the point around high-visibility policing initiatives, which we have started now. I completely agree with him on that. For us, it is certainly not associated with increased arrests or increased drug seizures. It is that thing where people feel safe to go into different parts of cities and towns. We started this in Dublin. It is hugely heavy on resourcing. The only reason I say that is we are here today and we are talking about numbers and roads policing units. There are such competing demands for resourcing, however. High-visibility policing involves the uniforms; as the Deputy said, those yellow jackets on the street. There is such a call for that. We started it here in Dublin north central, south central, Dublin metropolitan area, DMR, east and DMR south. We moved to Cork and Limerick and now we are about to start it in Galway. This has been hugely successful. We have got really positive reaction, not just from members of public but from businesses and tourists. The whole point of this is to get people to feel safe to go into our city centres. They feel reassured. They feel happy to let their children go in or whatever that is. Businesses feel they have someone who can deal with their issues right there on the spot. That has been really important to us. To connect that to roads policing, I definitely agree that visibility is really important for us. One of the things we are trying to do with all our roads policing people is remove as many inhibitors as we can from them to get them out there and on the ground as much as we can. Technology such as cameras, automatic number plate recognition, ANPR, and mobility devices, are all things we are providing them with to try to increase the visibility. Like I said, however, I do not disagree with the Deputy. All his points are very well made on visibility.
I will turn to Ms Gunne to discuss the statistical aspects of it.
Ms Catharina Gunne:
I thank the Deputy for the question. I brought up at the road safety leadership group the fact that An Garda Síochána and the RSA have different figures on fatalities. One of the reasons behind that is we published that today we have had 97 fatalities - that is 97 loved ones lost - on our roads. However, that figure includes all fatalities, including non-public roads, in relation to a car park, whereas the RSA's figures do not. I concur with the Deputy in relation to that. I brought that up at the road safety leadership group and I hope it will be addressed.
Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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Is that for this year?
Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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I am referring to the figure of 97.
Ms Catharina Gunne:
The figure of 97 is up to date today. We have had 97 fatalities on our roads. On that point, the Commissioner mentioned our lifesaver offences, lifesaver training and our advocacy and outreach to schools and what we are doing there. Even at that, when we meet and are in collaboration with the RSA, there are different figures, so it is very important that everything is captured in relation to it and that they are aligned.
Mr. Justin Kelly:
The other thing about our figures is that they certainly are not static; they change. There could be one interpretation of an accident at the scene and then a forensic collision investigator will come and do the full thing and we might recategorise it. Sometimes how we categorise them changes. That is another thing to take into account.
The issue of breath test numbers, which two Deputies have raised, was certainly a priority matter for me. I have discussed it with the Deputy. The Deputy has spoken to all the assistant commissioners in relation to this. It is our intention to raise the numbers around the breath tests. The comparison to other countries is not always useful. It depends on the type of police forces and all sorts of different things that are going on. To sum it all up, I definitely think there is considerable room for improvement on our side. It is not lost on us.
Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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Would Mr. Kelly prioritise-----
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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Briefly.
Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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I will be very brief. Would he prioritise breath testing later at night, maybe on secondary roads, rather than the early morning ones on secondary roads?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
There is certainly a belief that early morning breath testing is a thing we do to try to target specifically. We actually put quite a lot of work into where we set up the checkpoints. There is a whole piece of work behind how we do that.
One of the other things is that checkpoints are really dangerous for us when it comes to where we put them. Members might say one should go on a particular rural road. Unfortunately, we had a colleague, Garda Kevin Flatley, killed on a checkpoint. Checkpoints are actually quite dangerous to do. Members may not realise that. We have a lot of incidents on them so we just have to be really careful where we put them.
Shane Moynihan (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Commissioner and his colleagues for joining us. I compliment the members of An Garda Síochána, especially the ones I have had engagement with in Clondalkin, which is an area the Commissioner knows well, in Ronanstown and in Lucan. The leadership in those stations and the community gardaí I have engaged with have been top class. I wanted to put that on record. We need to call that out as well as asking the questions we rightly do about accountability.
I took note of the commissioners' testimony on e-scooters yesterday. It is an issue I have been raising for a number of months and I am glad to see there is consensus around the political spectrum on the question. I have a number of questions on what path is taken. We could opt for a total ban, which I am not necessarily sure will solve the problem, or a registration and licensing system. I noted the commissioners' comments yesterday that it is not practical to roll out this full training regime for pursuit over the next few months, but have members of the Garda been seconded or sent over to jurisdictions that have pursuit policies and training in place to prepare to start training trainers for a pursuit policy? Even if it is a total ban, which I do not necessarily agree with, gardaí will still require training for pursuit and removal of vehicles from the road. While I accept there may be resource pressures over the six months that may affect rolling that training out, is preparation being put in place to train trainers to do that pursuit training with colleagues?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
Absolutely. We have started that already. I only recently spoke to the director of training at the Garda College in Templemore. We have two driving schools, one in Dublin and one in Templemore, that train all our Garda drivers. On the pursuit element, as I explained yesterday, we have at the moment only a small cohort of very specialist officers who do that. I have obviously given the commitment we want to improve that. The direct answer to the Deputy's question is "Yes". Devon and Cornwall Police in the UK has a centre of excellence for pursuit driver training. We have sent some of our driving instructors over there. It is a three-stage process to get accredited and fully trained. As we do with many things, we send our experts to get fully trained, certified and everything and then they come back here and do all the training. In all these types of areas we do not usually bring someone here from abroad to do it. Instead we go abroad and get skilled up.
Shane Moynihan (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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Perfect.
Mr. Justin Kelly:
There are three elements to the training and my understanding from the director of training is we have two elements done, with one remaining. From speaking to the chief superintendent in the college, he told me the last element is later in the year. When I heard that I asked him to find out who I can talk to over there because I want to get that moved on a bit if I can. We want to get that done as soon as possible. Of course, we are dealing with a force abroad which is facilitating us to do this so------
Shane Moynihan (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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I appreciate that and I appreciate the proactive nature of that. I am also speaking with reference to tactical interventions, like removing someone from an e-scooter if they do not comply with a direction to stop. Is that part of the pursuit training as well and are preparations being put in place to train gardaí in that?
Shane Moynihan (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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Are preparations in place to do that same process?
Shane Moynihan (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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Will that be done before the end of the year?
Shane Moynihan (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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It ties into the point the Commissioner made in his opening statement about the need for the legislative backing to make sure Garda members are backed. We also need to ensure they are trained properly. With both of those things, we can travel together. I would appreciate it if the Commissioner could come back to the committee on that.
Shane Moynihan (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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On a related issue, I have raised the need for registration and licensing requirements because that would assist with enforcement if it is an unregistered scooter on the road. That would be done in the same way as motor vehicles. The RSA was here last week. It told us it thinks the architecture exists to roll it out. Does the Commissioner have a view on the registration and licensing requirement?
Shane Moynihan (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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Is that a legislative issue?
Shane Moynihan (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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Okay.
Mr. Justin Kelly:
Like I said, that is my understanding and subject to correction. That is the insurance issue. On licensing and registration, of course it would be useful for us if they were licensed and registered. One obvious problem with that is there are many thousands of them already in existence. If it is a new vehicle being sold, you would imagine it would be more straightforward to have a registration process. However, to do that retrospectively, and obviously this is outside my area of competence, I imagine would be quite challenging. We already heard one of the Deputies talking about how people cover registration plates on large vehicles. You can just imagine what would be going on with people who use these scooters for drug dealing and drug-related intimidation. Realistically, even with that I see lots of challenges for us to do with enforcement.
Shane Moynihan (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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Okay. There are insurance regimes in other countries in the European Union so I am sure something could be done here. I thank the Commissioner for calling out the drug dealing and drug-related intimidation. I have said it a few times and people have looked at me as if I have two heads. It is a massive issue and these e-scooters are being used to propagate that. The illegally used ones need to be taken off the streets in that regard.
Shane Moynihan (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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A hundred per cent. I have a final question and ask for latitude, Chair. It is on the ANPR technology and the cameras. The Commissioner might have a comment to make on this but what I have heard from various stakeholders I discussed this with is if there is a legislative change to allow local authorities to process the offences that are caught via ANPR, Garda resources would be freed up significantly. I am not just talking about speed but HGV bans in built-up areas. Does the Commissioner have a view? Is there something we can do legislatively to make that more efficient and to ensure the members who are putting themselves in harm's way are spending their time more usefully than reviewing footage? Maybe that is not something the Commissioner thinks is not a valuable use of time.
Shane Moynihan (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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Before she comes in, I want to tack on a very quick query. Is that an inhibitor to rolling out more ANPR cameras across the country because it is tied to the number of resources the Garda has? I ask Ms Gunne to cover that in her answer as well, please.
Ms Catharina Gunne:
I thank the Deputy for that. The national safety camera strategy is part of the camera enforcement oversight group. It is chaired by Anne Shaw of the NTA. We are looking at that piece as part of that group, that the enforcement in relation to speeding and lifesaver offences will in time be taken over, along with traffic management offences like red light breaking and all of that. That is aiming towards that. I can say with confidence that is where we are going and that is part of it.
Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I thank the Commissioner and his team for joining us. Last week the RSA was here and I was talking to its representatives about how some toy retailers are marketing e-scooters solely for children and other retailers are very clearly marketing e-scooters that run at over 20 km/h. Will the Commissioner tease out for us what legal rules are in place right now? I understand it is illegal for someone under the age of 16 to be on an e-scooter. Is it illegal for a shop to sell to someone under 16? Is it illegal to buy for someone under 16 and is it illegal for a shop to market to someone under 16?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
The offences we deal with are not related to retailers. All of the offences we deal with relate to the use of them. As the Deputy rightly said, under-16s cannot use them. Speed restriction, lights and audible warning device are all the things we deal with out on the street but we do not deal with the retailers element.
Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Is it that there is not a law or it is not a law An Garda Síochána deals with?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
There are two elements. From the briefing I got, my understanding is that there is no legislation around that. The second part is the practical application. The reality is that a lot of people are buying them for children. In other words, retailers are selling them to adults. That is the defence which some retailers we have approached put forward. The marketing-----
Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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An Garda Síochána does engage with retailers on the question of whether they should be doing this.
Mr. Justin Kelly:
In some limited circumstances. As I am sure the Deputy can appreciate, out on the streets, the enforcement of road traffic legislation is our primary thing. We have approached some retailers, however. The response we get is that they sell them to adults. If an adult buys on and gives it to a child, there is an offence relating to their use by under-16s. My view is that there are certainly some weaknesses regarding the retailers. We spoke about this with the justice committee yesterday.
Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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When you see e-scooters directly marketed on websites - the drop-down menus refer to seven- to nine-year-olds and ten to 12-year-olds. It is very targeted.
A lot of our focus here and the dialogue over the past couple of weeks has been on the illegal or dangerous use of e-scooters. We have to recognise that there are tens of thousands of commuters who use them every day. Many use them safely. Probably a good chunk of them could use them more safely than is currently the case. Is the view of the Commissioner that e-scooters can be used on our roads in a way that is safe, regulated and can fit in with everyone else who uses our roads?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
The Deputy is absolutely right. There are people who use them very safely and responsibly. From our experience in An Garda Síochána, however, when we look at the use of e-scooters, we can see that there is just so much bad behaviour. It is not like it is limited bad behaviour; there is so much. Even if I set aside all of the crime issues I spoke about earlier, it is not just really poorly behaved criminal elements behaving badly using e-scooters. All our experience and all the reporting coming to me is that even very decent and law-abiding people and students are using them badly. It is nearly the exception to see people wearing high-vis jackets and helmets, behaving responsibly and stopping at junctions in parts of the city. It is the exception rather than the rule. The leading cause of traumatic head injuries across the country now is e-scooters.
Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Does Mr. Kelly have views about the use of helmets?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
The use of helmets is something we previously recommended. As I said, our job in An Garda Síochána is to enforce legislation. We often make recommendations. Sometimes these are taken on board and sometimes they are not. A helmet would be very sensible for anybody using an e-scooter. One would presume that would reduce the number of injuries to some extent. Will it reduce the bad behaviour and criminal element who wear balaclavas and avoid the Garda? I doubt it. The other element is that if you bring in helmets, these people behaving so badly are not going to wear them anyway.
Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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It is important not to conflate the criminal elements that the Commissioner set out, namely the use of e-scooters to support drug dealing and drug intimidation, with bad road behaviours that are problematic and that need to be addressed. Would he agree that the legislative solutions are perhaps different for those two elements of problematic behaviour?
Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Is that behaviour illegal currently?
Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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All of it is illegal.
Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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How many prosecutions have there been for illegal behaviour by e-scooter drivers?
Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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It would be useful to separate the under-16s from the adults.
Mr. Justin Kelly:
For under-16s, there were 14 prosecutions in 2024. There were 42 in 2025 and there have been 79 so far this year. That is a total of 135. That is the way the numbers are going with regard to under-16s.
Detections and prosecutions do not paint the full picture. That is because many of them, as I have explained here and at the other committee yesterday, are very difficult for us to apprehend. We might say "Here are the numbers around detection and prosecutions", but that does not paint the full picture of what is going on with their use. For many people, it is not possible for us to apprehend them in view of the way the drive and use them. That is due to the fact that they go up on paths, into parks, down lane-ways, etc.
Dr. Shawna Coxon:
I just want to point out something which no one has said but which is obvious and important. I refer to the fact that just being on one is quite dangerous. You do not have protection even if you wear a helmet and a high-vis vest. In a lot of cases where catastrophic injuries occur, the behaviour might have been okay. You are on the road with others whose behaviour may not be okay. They might be in a vehicle or whatever. When we talk about safety, it is not just criminality or people engaging in poor behaviour; it is just the lack of safety, even if you do everything right. That is important to mention.
Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I apologise for my late arrival. On Wednesday mornings, there is often an overlap with meetings. I was following most of the earlier part. The Commissioner and deputy commissioner are very welcome. I am very pro-Garda. Gardaí do fantastic and very difficult work.
On 26 October 2023, following the enactment of legislation relating to scrambler bikes, 44 scramblers were confiscated in Limerick. The Limerick division covers into a lot of County Clare, where I live. Four nights later, the tow truck used was burnt out. This was publicised all over the country; it was on national radio. Mass seizures of scramblers seem to have been rowed back on since then. There was a big reaction from the Garda and a counteraction by thugs and criminals. There does not seem to have been the same impetus since. Will the Commissioner comment on that? How well is the Garda doing with the seizure and confiscation of scramblers?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
I am familiar with the incident in Limerick. I reassure the Deputy that behaviour like that is not going to stop An Garda Síochána from running operations or days of action. Anything like that certainly would not. So far this year, just to put some numbers around it, between e-bikes, e-scooters, quads and scramblers, 1,865 have been seized. That is a significant number. A key element for us is Operation Meacán, an intelligence-led operation. As the Deputy pointed out, similar to what was done in Limerick, we identify people who are using them poorly and who have multiple bikes. We do house searches, seize them and, where possible, dispose of them.
We have had many days of action, particularly here in Dublin. Even this year alone, we have carried out 52 house searches in three days of action. Therefore, there is a lot of very proactive activity going on regarding the vehicles.
Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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Could I make the point that while there are many fine people involved in the vehicle recovery business, many of whom are contracted at divisional level and do great work, it was obvious on 30 October 2023 that they were putting their lives and vehicles at risk through their enforcement activity? Also, we saw recently during the fuel protests that tow trucks that are ordinarily contracted by An Garda Síochána were not really available or could not help out. Has An Garda Síochána looked into acquiring its own fleet, or perhaps it already has some vehicles and could acquire a more extensive fleet? These vehicles could have on board the dynamometers used for registering speed. Thus, we could confiscate vehicles more easily rather than having to go through the convoluted route of trying to bring in a contractor when one may not be available.
Mr. Justin Kelly:
Yes. First, intimidation or anything like that attracts a criminal investigation, so we carry out a criminal investigation into it. As the Deputy rightly said, there was absolutely horrendous behaviour and intimidation of some of the people contracted by us for towing during the fuel protests. I certainly do not want to stray off topic, but, on the EU Presidency, we now have contingency plans in place involving contractors from outside the country. We also have our military colleagues, so we now have contingency plans. Locally, we would fully investigate anything like the behaviour in question.
Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Commissioner.
Can I ask about food delivery? I have mentioned this at the past couple of meetings of this committee. I am not going to name the companies involved but there are not too many of them operating in Ireland. They tend to use fully electric bicycles, not pedelecs. They often pass regular cyclists on cycle lanes at speeds far exceeding the speed of cars and vans on the main thoroughfare. It is totally wrong and is in breach of legislation; yet, all over this city this morning, afternoon and evening, there will be people going around with food-delivery bags on their backs, shooting along the cycleways, clipping elbows with cyclists and sometimes knocking them off. I have seen it happen. I did not cycle to the Dáil this morning, but I did yesterday. I see it happening far too often. It is quite a niche issue, and I ask that An Garda Síochána in Dublin, Limerick, Cork and other urban centres aggressively enforce the law. If a bicycle is travelling in excess of the permitted speed, and if it is fully electric, it should be confiscated immediately. What I have described is happening. The offenders cycle past gardaí while doing it. They breeze past them. They should not be in cycleways, and they are exceeding the speed of regular motorised vehicles on the main thoroughfare.
Mr. Justin Kelly:
Again, that is a very good point. I am aware of this type of behaviour. We have taken enforcement action in relation to some of the offenders. It occurs to me, even from the Deputy's intervention this morning, that there is probably room for us to engage at a higher level with the relevant companies about some of their responsibilities. That is something I will take away this morning and discuss with the management team.
Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Commissioner. I looked into this a little over the past few weeks. The companies have registered contractors. There are not a great many of them. We are talking about hundreds of people rather than thousands. An Garda Síochána should be going directly to the companies, because this is a very niche area in which enforcement could very easily be achieved.
The Commissioner's predecessor issued operational guidance to the effect that people on scramblers or e-scooters without helmets should not be pursued. That has become a real difficulty at local level because e-scooters and scramblers are veering off the main thoroughfares. They are going down canal paths and across green areas. The Commissioner has already covered all of this. I want to know whether the guidance has been rescinded or whether the Commissioner would consider rescinding it. A rank-and-file member of An Garda Síochána should have a lot of latitude to chase someone if that person is suspected of being involved in a crime or is posing a danger to people. I do not accept the idea of backing off because a person has no helmet on. The offenders are acting with total impunity and know that, without wearing a helmet, they can do pretty much what they want and go where they want. It is not until they stop that they can be apprehended by An Garda Síochána. Has the Commissioner rescinded that operational directive, or will he consider doing so?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
To clarify matters, there is not a direction stating we cannot pursue motorcycles or e-scooters. Therefore, the contention is not correct. If there is a spontaneous pursuit and a garda comes across a situation like that mentioned, he or she contacts our control centre. The control centre has people trained in pursuits. The garda will provide live details of what is happening, and a decision will then be made on whether to continue the pursuit. A whole range of factors is taken into account.
Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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Is it not the case that if someone has no helmet, he or she will not be pursued?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
The reality is that in these situations, approximately 75% of pursuits receive the go-ahead to continue. About 25% do not. If we let the situation the Deputy talked about play out a little, a Garda vehicle might pursue someone on an e-scooter who does not have a helmet in a busy area. That person might be knocked down or might knock somebody else down. The knock-on effect is a referral to Fiosrú, meaning a police ombudsman investigation into the activity of the garda who was driving the car. All cases are different, but we have seen gardaí in those situations being prosecuted.
Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Commissioner.
Louis O'Hara (Galway East, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the witnesses for their time today. In the Commissioner's opening statement, he referred to the GoSafe safety camera programme and the role speed cameras play. I want to focus on the contract An Garda Síochána has with GoSafe for the provision of speed camera vans. In 2024, An Garda Síochána paid almost €18 million to GoSafe for the provision of 58 speed camera vans. That works out at the State paying €310,000 for the operation of each speed camera van per year. I have tried to get basic details from An Garda Síochána through freedom of information requests about the contract, including how many operators GoSafe currently employs to operate the 58 vans. I have received responses stating that this information is outside the remit of An Garda Síochána. I have concerns about the resulting lack of transparency relating to such a significant contract. Can the Commissioner give a commitment that details such as the number of vans and operators will be published so that there is transparency in the operation of the programme?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
Certainly. We can provide the number of vans. We obviously have a contract with GoSafe relating to the number of hours it provides, etc. Without reviewing the response to the Deputy's correspondence, I know there are some restrictions arising from the commercial sensitivity of some of the information. There are potential restrictions on what we can provide because of that.
Overall, the GoSafe service is one we do not provide ourselves. We are involved in a contract that goes through all the proper procurement processes. There is a lot of governance around it. A huge amount of work goes into all the locations, how they are chosen and the number of hours. From a governance standpoint, I can ask Dr. Coxon to tell the Deputy a little about that and the work we do with GoSafe.
Dr. Shawna Coxon:
It is important to note that we took over this contract. This was new for us. It had previously been dealt with outside An Garda Síochána. This was something we took on at a higher level in terms of increasing the number of cameras. I am referring not just to GoSafe but to cameras overall, particularly static cameras.
On the specific questions the Deputy asked, there are 58 mobile safety camera vans and 96 trained operators. We are operating approximately 9,000 speed-monitoring hours per month.
Louis O'Hara (Galway East, Sinn Fein)
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I appreciate that. I would also appreciate it if that information could be published. Some €18 million was spent in 2024. Is there a figure for 2025?
Louis O'Hara (Galway East, Sinn Fein)
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Okay, €21 million. Has there been any consideration within An Garda Síochána as to whether it would be more cost-effective to resource the roads policing unit to maintain the mobile speed camera van network rather than paying €21 million to GoSafe for the use of 58 vans? Has any analysis or feasibility study been carried out on that?
Dr. Shawna Coxon:
We have examined a number of different options but, to be honest, from a strategic standpoint, we are actually going in the opposite direction.
When we look at what our numbers are currently, things may be different and could be reconsidered when we reach the programme for Government commitment of 5,000 more gardaí that we see in place right now. Regarding the number of people we have in An Garda Síochána, as the Deputy has heard from the Commissioner, much of our roads policing enforcement takes place from regular units and not just roads policing. We are looking at technology to enhance that. We know it is expensive. This is an ongoing conversation with the Government. Right now, what we want is all the options to use technology to enhance what we have within An Garda Síochána.
Mr. Justin Kelly:
I wish to add to that. We spend so much time recruiting new members of An Garda Síochána and trying to get the very best people we can get. We put them through an extensive training programme. To put them through all that and, with no disrespect to GoSafe operators, then have 50 of them every day sitting in the back of GoSafe vans is not a good use of Garda resources. The Deputy is absolutely right that it is a very significant amount of taxpayers' money. There is a whole governance architecture and procurement architecture around that. It is all State procurement. It goes through a whole layer of checks. There are other technologies coming on. I am sure the Deputy is aware of the fixed cameras, average speed cameras, etc. There are a whole other range of things around that.
Louis O'Hara (Galway East, Sinn Fein)
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As I mentioned, there are 58 vans. It is the same as what would have been in operation in late 2024. Since 2024, 390 additional speed camera zones have been added to the map. We now have the case where 58 vans are expected to cover 1,900 zones. Can 58 vans effectively monitor and enforce speed limits across those zones even with the support at times of roads policing units?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
The Deputy is right that there are 1,901 locations. Between ourselves, GoSafe and TII, we have put a lot of work into identifying every one of those. I will give a sense of how we do that. There is collision data for three years. We crunch all that data. They are fluid. Some of them change. Some of them come onto that list and come off it. Obviously, there are a significant amount of numbers in that. There is a reason for that. These are all places we have had problems with. It is a balance of how much money we get allocated for this. This is coming out of our Garda budget. Nine thousand hours is not insignificant. We try to balance what we are allocated for finance and the amount of work. We try to squeeze as much work out of that as we can for taxpayers' money. The advent of some of the new things with the fixed cameras - the 14 of those - and the average speed cameras are also very important for us now. We have seen huge increases in the detections on those. That is up 90% year on year.
Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)
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I welcome the witnesses. I wish to focus on e-scooters. We can all see it. It is often those under 16 years who are riding these scooters. I am wondering about the role of community safety partnerships. How does the Garda prosecute? What is the offence for someone who is under the age of 16? If someone is caught on an e-scooter, do we need to change legislation regarding pursuit policy? What is the route for a young person to go? Does the Garda take the scooter? Is it the parent's responsibility? Are they referred to a youth project? Is there a process? I wish to hear more about that.
Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)
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Is it speeding? Is it without a helmet? What are the offences?
Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)
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Do we need a change in legislation regarding helmets?
Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)
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It is to ban them - a full ban. I am a former youth worker. Youth projects are pressed as it is. Even for juvenile liaison officers, JLOs, there are large caseloads and there is the referrals to justice project. If there is a ban, is that going to make things worse?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
It would certainly make it far easier for us when it comes to seizure. At the moment, the Senator can imagine the difficulties. A person cannot use an e-scooter in a public place if they are under 16. Even for us to identify people and identify who is under 16 and who is over 16-----
Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)
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At the moment, how do gardaí do that?
Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)
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There are also the injuries. Was it six children in the past two weeks with life-changing injuries from this? It is a real problem for young people.
Mr. Justin Kelly:
From our point of view, there is the amount of time that we are spending - I described some of the operations earlier - seizing them and going to court to have contested cases where people are trying to get them back. There is all this time we are spending on this. There were 1,800 seized this year. For every one of those seizures, that is a garda seizing them on the street, bringing it back to the station, doing the paperwork, doing the computer entries and potentially dealing with a court case to deal with the person who is looking to get it back.
Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)
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It is getting young people into the system.
Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)
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I understand that. It was said many times today that road safety is part of all divisions. Is the Garda meeting its targets for recruitment and retention of staff?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
Yes, absolutely. We are in a very positive position now. The Deputy mentioned it earlier about recruitments. The Government has funded us for 5,000 people over five years. We are in the second year now. I am happy that last year we had 11,000 people apply to join the Garda. We had the first recruitment campaign of 2026. There were significant numbers again. Now, we are consistently getting in classes of around 200. Every quarter roughly, we have around 200 new gardaí coming out. Today-----
Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)
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Are experienced gardaí going towards being a juvenile liaison officer? E-scooters are such a big issue for young people. If an offence is committed and it is going to be referred to a juvenile liaison officer, if the person is over 18, are they being prosecuted?
Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)
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Are they entering the courts system? As young people who have made a mistake or maybe they were careless, should more emphasis be going into community safety partnerships?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
The other very important thing we are doing, and this committee is very well aware of it, is education. One of the things we have done is that we have written to every school principal and board of management about the responsibility, not of the children but also of parents in particular, when it comes to e-scooters. We have explained that. We are working on our school programme and e-scooter awareness. We work with the Department of education on that. There is a lot-----
Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)
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It is awareness. Is that part of the RSA or that part of An Garda Síochána?
Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)
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A hundred per cent. Youth services have a huge role there-----
Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)
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-----and the funding of youth services. Regarding checkpoints, that is definitely a deterrent if there are going to be breathalyser checkpoints. It is quite dangerous where the Garda has to pick places. What are the criteria for deciding the location of checkpoints?
Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)
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If people have previously been caught in a certain place, is the decision based on factors like that?
Dr. Shawna Coxon:
We have a dedicated analyst and this is their full-time job. Every single division across the country has statistics on where there have been previous collisions, where previous detections have occurred, where we have community complaints and the kinds of thing other members have brought up. That is analysed. It is done as a hot spot map. We will show it across the country when we meet with our chiefs to make everyone aware of what is working and share best practice. It is quite a detailed analysis. We continue to refresh it because, as we put that high visibility out there, we can see how things move. It is constantly refreshed.
Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)
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My last question is about static cameras. There is a narrative that they are a money racket. I believe that they are a good idea, but are they in places where there are changing speed zones? Of course, it is important to have speed limits. I know from driving that you might be in a 120 km/h area and then, all of a sudden, it goes to 80 km/h. I am talking about the assumption that they are a money racket.
Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)
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Should the revenue go back into An Garda Síochána?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
Different countries do it in different ways, but that is how the system is at the moment. From our point of view, there is never any discussion around making more money from them. That never enters the conversation. Speed limits are for local authorities to deal with. They set the speed limits. We do not do that.
Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)
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I know that. I am asking about the positioning of the cameras.
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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If, as a Member of the Oireachtas, we get representations about a particular issue, can we write to a senior member of An Garda Síochána requesting consideration of a GoSafe camera in a particular location?
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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I struggle to know what email address to use or whom to contact. Could those contact details be provided to members of the committee as a follow-up?
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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We tend to go into a second round of three minutes for each member. Would the witnesses like a break for a minute or two to use the bathroom or are they happy to continue? I have to bring the meeting to a conclusion at 11.55 a.m., as we have some private correspondence to deal with. Should we have a bathroom break for a couple of minutes?
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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We will have a break of two or three minutes. I want to offer that to the witnesses because it has been a fairly intense round of questioning. We will resume in two or three minutes.
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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We will have a second round of three-minute questions. We have to finish at 11.55 a.m. and I am going to enforce the three minutes exactly, including for myself. In terms of mobility devices, we talk a lot about members of An Garda Síochána having access to data in real time.
Is it every member of An Garda Síochána, every member of the roads policing unit or every vehicle that has a mobility device?
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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Does the Garda have full access to the national driver and vehicle file?
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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Does that include the photograph?
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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Is access to a photograph something that the Commissioner has formally requested from the Department of Transport?
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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How long has that been with the Department of Transport?
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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We can follow up with the Department of Transport.
On the mandatory investigation of every fatal crash, currently every fatal crash is investigated by An Garda Síochána. Is that primarily for the purpose of determining criminal liability?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
Yes. We treat any fatal collision really seriously in the hierarchy of things we investigate. It is a criminal investigation. A forensic collision investigator is assigned to all fatal accidents. You will often see the road is closed for a period of time. That is what usually takes us a long time - bringing out a collision investigator. They painstakingly go through everything and try to work out-----
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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Is it primarily from the point of establishing criminal liability?
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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The reason I ask relates to recommendations we are considering as a committee and looking at other European jurisdictions. In the Finnish model, they have 20 multidisciplinary investigative teams across the country. Each team involves a police officer, vehicle engineer, traffic engineer and physician and sometimes a psychologist as well. Their investigations examine not only driver behaviour but also road environment, vehicle factors and system design. Is there merit in consideration of that model that applies in Finland?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
Yes. We ourselves have certainly looked at the Nordic system. There is certainly a lot of merit to it. As I said earlier, An Garda Síochána certainly investigates from the criminal end but we do not stop at that. We report to the local authorities on anything that has happened. We also have-----
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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There is an excessive period before that information comes back to the local authority. Sometimes it can be years. Am I right in saying that?
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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I thank Ms Gunne. I have to stick to the three minutes. I call Deputy Crowe.
Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I want to raise the issue of urban ponies and sulky racing. It comes under the Roads Act 1993 and the Control of Horses Act 1996. There are strong robust laws set out here and yet there does not seem to be enforcement. I live in a part of Clare which is quite close to Limerick city. We are told, time and time again, they have a cultural entitlement to have these horses and these urban ponies can be tolerated. That is absurd. Everyone has a family link to horses at one point. If I go back and look at those old black-and-white photos of my family, there is a pony beside the house. I live in the year 2026. I do not have a horse and I do not have any cultural entitlement to it. We have become an apologist country, both as legislators and as enforcement agents, to allow these urban ponies. I want to know whether the Commissioner has a view on this. There will come a day where, just like an e-scooter or a scrambler, one of these ponies will kick a young child and they will be killed. We have tolerated this for far too long. There is no legal basis for sulky racing on roads. There is no legal basis for ponies to be galloped across green areas where children are playing and yet it seems universally tolerated in Ireland. It is totally at odds with all other European countries. You would not see those urban ponies anywhere else. I want to know what An Garda Síochána is doing, quite literally, to rein this in.
Mr. Justin Kelly:
I certainly share the Deputy's concerns about sulky racing. Whatever about ponies being kept in urban areas and the animal welfare issues, which is one side of it, when we see this activity taking place on motorways, roads being blocked and cars blocking traffic, this is completely unacceptable. It is an area that I certainly want to prioritise.
The Deputy is correct that the legislation is there. Obviously, these are not preplanned events. It comes to our attention when they are under way, but I complete agree with the Deputy.
Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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It is quite niche. There are certain pockets of the country where this is an issue. I would ask the Commissioner to undertake to write to the different divisions. The law is there. It was set by our colleagues two decades ago and yet it does not seem to be enforced.
There is a Netflix series out at the moment, called "The Crash", which focuses on a trial in the US, in 2022, where it was thought to be a road traffic accident but, in fact, it was a murder case. Interestingly, in the second episode, they talk about all the technology in the US they have in-car. There are black boxes. There is intelligence speed assistance. We have heard of the technology that the Commissioner has in the Garda fleet but it seems we have a whole lot of latent technology in new cars we are not using in Ireland. Has the Commissioner a view on how that could be used to slow cars down and to detect where accidents have happened? We seem to have a void there, with technology not being used properly within cars.
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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Briefly, because we have to move on.
Ms Catharina Gunne:
At the road safety leadership group, that is under discussion. I refer to the interlocks and the black box. What we have seen from the road safety partners, even today and around that meeting room, is the impact it has for insurance. On insurance, I refer to that campaign where you get cheaper insurance as a result of having one of them in.
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the assistant commissioner. I call Deputy Currie.
Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I want to raise driver numbers and the approximately 1,500 penalty points that are not being recorded on the national vehicle and driver file for Irish driving licence holders. I have raised it extensively. We have discussed it previously. I and Susan Gray of Promoting Awareness Responsibility and Care on our roads, PARC, met with the Courts Service a couple of months ago and it was agreed at that meeting that the Courts Service would engage directly with the Garda on how we might solve this, including how to bring the driver number in at an earlier stage. It seems that when it is a fixed-charge notice, the driver number is automatically included and, therefore, there are very few summons coming into the courts. I am asking for an update on that work and how the Commissioner sees that process being fixed.
Ms Catharina Gunne:
I thank the Deputy for her question. I am aware that the Deputy and Susan Gray met the Department and they also met the CEO of the Courts Service, Angela Denning
To put a little context for this meeting on what that looks like in figures, in speeding, for example, for 2025, there were 167,000 FCNs issued. They were all paid with the exception of over 15,800 who went to court. Therefore, it is a 9.5% cohort that we are talking about here, to put it into context in relation to the 167,000.
As to what we do, the Deputy is correct. In relation to the FCNs, the driver number is captured in the original FCN but when it goes to court, it is not on the court summons. Then the impact of the driving licence number is in the court area. As to what are we going to do in that regard, we have discussed it with Ms Denning and she has, as part of the induction for judges, reinforced that message in relation to the driver licence number.
There is also a form of CPD for judges and awareness measures at their conference in relation to it. I have also prepared infographics in relation to FCN numbers across An Garda Síochána and have ensured that gardaí are obtaining the FCN numbers during the interactions with the drivers.
Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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May I come back in?
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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Your three minutes are up. Do you have another question?
Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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It is on the same issue. I am aware of the overall numbers but this is a structural deficiency. It has a real and very serious impact if 1,500 penalty points a year are not being assigned to drivers. While I appreciate the pressure being put on judges, ultimately, I do not think asking judges to ask for the driver number will necessarily change anything if it is already in legislation that the driver number is supposed to be obtained in court. An Garda Síochána is saying that it is going to ensure the driver numbers are collected at the time of the offence. I hope they will also be put on the summons. That is a question. However, we need something more robust. We need to understand exactly what is going to change because this has been going on for 15 years.
Shane Moynihan (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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The Commissioner will be aware that, a number of years ago, a report on roads policing in An Garda Síochána was published. One of the findings of that report was that there was evidence of low morale and a lack of interest among some of the respondents. I am not trying to cast aspersions on members of the force. What is the Commissioner's view on the level of morale, interest and engagement among members of An Garda Síochána who are engaged in roads policing at the moment? Has it improved? Is it better? To what would the Commissioner attribute any improvements or disimprovements, as may be the case?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
There were obviously some very disappointing elements to the report the Deputy is talking about. We have spoken publicly about this. We have looked at all the recommendations and accepted them. We have an implementation plan. We have done lots of work on that. Deputy Commissioner Coxon has led out on that for me. It is also important to say that the report identified a small minority of roads policing people.
Shane Moynihan (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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I accept that.
Mr. Justin Kelly:
The other thing that is very important is that there was no orchestrated group. These were individuals in different places. It is not that there was a whole unit that was behaving badly. On the Deputy's question regarding morale, we are certainly doing a number of things. I spoke about them earlier. We are looking at the structures, the numbers, the equipment and the vehicles. Some of the vehicles used for roads policing are on a par with anything used anywhere in Europe. That is important to the morale of members of An Garda Síochána. From speaking to members of roads policing units, I know that, following that Crowe report, many were really disappointed at the report's findings because some of their colleagues had let them down really badly. If I may put it this way, I believe there has been a lot of soul-searching in roads policing. A lot of people were very unhappy with some of their colleagues' poor behaviour. The work our roads policing people are doing in the context of the EU Presidency is absolutely fantastic. I meet them very regularly. That small minority have really tarnished the name of roads policing.
Shane Moynihan (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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I am glad the Commissioner has articulated that so clearly here today. It is important that gets heard. I am glad to hear there have been positive steps to proactively address that.
I have a final question, which is related. It is about mountain bike training. Operation Irene is a very successful operation in my constituency. It gives huge confidence to the public. I recently learned that gardaí are not taught to use mountain bikes as part of their training in Templemore. They are taken off the beat and sent for training for two weeks. Are there any plans to incorporate this training as part of the overall training programme in Templemore? It strikes me that, with greater population density and more built-up cities, it is going to be a skill that is in demand more often.
Mr. Justin Kelly:
The Deputy is absolutely right. It is very useful for the urban areas. At the moment, there are no plans to introduce it into the foundation training. To be very honest, the time we have assigned for foundation training is absolutely jammed with material. As you can imagine, everywhere we go, people want more input into that training, whether in respect of domestic violence or some other issue. At the moment, we certainly do not have any plans to introduce it as part of foundation training. We might look at increasing training in mountain bike use for people who are out of training but it will not be introduced to foundation training.
Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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In recent weeks, there has been a good bit of coverage of the decrease in the number of gardaí in dedicated roads policing units. How many members are in dedicated roads policing units at the moment? The Commissioner is quite new in the role. Is growing the number of gardaí in dedicated units a priority for him? What number would he like to see?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
We have 660 in total, 11 of whom are in our Garda National Roads Policing Bureau dealing with the support and back-end functions. The total is 660. As I said earlier, it is our largest specialist unit. To use a comparison I used earlier, it is bigger than our organised crime and immigration units put together. It is a very substantial commitment of numbers. We are putting people into roads policing all of the time. Just last week, we assigned 13 extra to the DMR roads policing units. The reality of personnel allocation for us is that we put people into roads policing but others then retire, get promoted or whatever it is. The number is therefore constantly changing.
Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I asked this question because, throughout these hearings, the question of enforcement has been the central question all the organisations raise with us. We have seen a decrease in numbers. It is at 660 now. Is growing that number a priority for the Commissioner?
Mr. Justin Kelly:
No. For me, the priority is making sure we get the maximum work out of the 660 we have. That is my number one priority. My number two priority is to make sure we have the management and supervisory structures in place to ensure people are doing what they are supposed to be doing and are motivated to do so. Those are the first two things I am concentrating on. We have taken another look at some of the numbers. We definitely have to strengthen some of the units. We are gradually doing that. As I said, we put 13 extra into the Dublin area last week. Every cohort of roughly 200 that comes out of the Garda College gives us the ability to put extra people into different units. We have consistently been putting people into roads policing.
Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I only have a minute left. The Commissioner spoke about how that number is used. Deputy Moynihan mentioned the Crowe report and the worrying trends that it revealed among a small number of gardaí. The Commissioner spoke about an implementation plan to respond to that. How many recommendations were made? How is An Garda Síochána assessing its success in implementing the recommendations of the Crowe report?
Ms Catharina Gunne:
The Crowe report made eight findings. I appeared at a meeting of the Policing and Community Safety Authority to go through some of that in recent weeks. We are moving to a business-as-usual stage. Does the Deputy know what I mean? In roads policing, some of the recommendations have been implemented. The recommendation on structures has been covered and dealt with, as have the recommendations on increased use of ANPR and our fleet. We had resources going into our fleet. We now have branding to circumvent that. Roads policing will be for roads policing because of their particular branding.
Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Were recommendations made on the actual numbers engaged in roads policing?
Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The Crowe report did not touch on that.
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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Before we conclude, why do we need the photographs and the signatures? What was that request made to the Department?
Ms Catharina Gunne:
It means that, when you are at a checkpoint, the gardaí can verify that you are the driver. May I make one other point for clarification on something Deputy Currie has said? To be clear, 15,000 fines went to court but that does not mean there were 15,000 cases in which the driver's licence was not captured. There is training for the court clerks to ensure the driving licence number is obtained.
I just want to have that out there. It is 15,000 who go to court.
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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That is great. Mr. Kelly mentioned 13 were allocated to roads policing within the Dublin metropolitan region, DMR. Some 70% of the graduates from the two intakes from Templemore so far this year went to the DMR. Is it 13 of the 245 or 13 more senior gardaí?
Michael Murphy (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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I just hope we see 70% of the next intake coming to Tipperary. That is a separate issue.
I want to bring the meeting to a conclusion. On behalf of myself and all the committee members, I thank all the witnesses for today's positive and constructive engagement. Again, I acknowledge the men and women of An Garda Síochána, in particular in regard to their role in road safety. They are always first on the scene. We got a sense of their perspective during the meeting. We are going to work on a set of recommendations over the summer and we will produce a report. We will link in closely with the Commissioner and the assistant commissioners once the report is published. I thank them for their time today. The witnesses were here yesterday as well. The engagement has been really good. I am sorry for cutting them short but one of my biggest challenges when it comes to these meetings is time management. We need to go into private session now to deal with a couple of important housekeeping matters. I ask those in the Public Gallery to leave as well. I thank everyone very much.