Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

It was with amazement that I read media reports that the Government is considering abandoning plans for the roll-out of speed cameras because of the higher than anticipated cost of the programme. The road safety strategy is in a shambles and will be critically undermined by the Ministers for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and Transport if the roll-out of speed cameras does not proceed. The core excuse of excessive cost seems ludicrous, given that the administrative and monitoring cost of the 600 locations is approximately €25 million per year, well below the expected €70 million that would be generated in revenue. Given the significant speed factor in car collisions, fatalities and serious injuries, it must be asked how this cost of €25 million per annum can be regarded as more important than the approximately €700 million cost of tragic crash fatalities in 2007.

There are still just three fixed speed cameras on Irish roads, rotating between 20 locations, although the rollout of speed cameras has been part of national road safety strategies for the past ten years. The new road safety strategy of 2007 to 2012 had a commitment for the provision of 6,000 hours of speed camera detection per month by the second quarter of 2008, in other words, next month or the following month. The Minister of State, Deputy Gallagher, will remember that was action No. 26 of the Road Safety Authority programme. It would be astonishing if the Government were now to drop this key target altogether less than five months into the lifetime of the new road safety strategy.

Speed cameras are the norm in most of our European Union partner states, which have a much better traffic collision record than ours. Government-commissioned research has established that a five-fold increase in cameras could reduce serious crashes by more than 20%. The Government-commissioned report in 2002, The Use of Speed Cameras in Ireland, by researchers at Monash University in Melbourne stated, "The social and community benefits of a successful speed camera programme are high, with between 30% and 50% reduction in the costs of road trauma being saved by the implementation of a successful road safety strategy." I believe that could amount to perhaps €500 million over five years. The experience in the Australian state of Victoria has found that to develop the societal attitude that if one speeds, one will be caught and prosecuted, some 60% of the jurisdictional fleet must have their speed checked statistically every month. The programme we intended to embark on would have enabled speed to be checked every two months.

Ten years ago, in 1998, the Taoiseach promised the rollout of a network of speed cameras in the road safety strategy, Road To Safety. The 2004 to 2006 road safety strategy again proposed this as a key objective and again failed to deliver it. On 1 August 2005, following a Cabinet decision of 25 July 2005 at which the Ceann Comhairle was present, the then Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell, and the then Minister for Transport, Deputy Brennan, again agreed to proceed with approximately 500 to 600 speed camera locations nationwide. I understand that a competitive tendering process was undertaken and that six bidders were shortlisted to provide speed camera detection services at 600 locations around the country.

The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform was often quoted in recent years, including prior to the general election, as stating the award of the speed camera contract was "imminent". Yet, in December 2007, we were still waiting for the decision, and now we are being told that due to "cost issues" the decision taken in 2005 will not proceed.

Just last week the chairman of the Road Safety Authority, Mr. Gay Byrne, strongly criticised the ongoing Government failure on speed cameras, saying it was disgraceful. Today's reports on the possible abandonment of the speed camera programme are very demoralising for the chairman of the Road Safety Authority, Mr. Gay Byrne, its chief executive, Mr. Noel Brett, and the hardworking and dedicated Road Safety Authority workforce. The speed camera rollout must remain a key component of the overall road safety strategy. Information gained from research in the United Kingdom clearly shows a major reduction in casualties from collisions. We should allow Mr. Gay Byrne, Mr. Noel Brett and all their staff to do the job they were charged with by this House and by the Minister, by providing the proper funding for the long-promised and critical road safety programme and, in particular, for the rollout of speed cameras.

We accept we need a mix of measures to cut back on the savage casualty rate on Irish roads. These include the introduction of random breath testing, the new penalty points system, the new learner driver system and, above all, the new traffic corps. The Minister of State, Deputy Gallagher, may refer to that as I read an earlier press release from the Department on the traffic corps. I accept we need the promised 1,200 gardaí in the traffic corps but the information I have from the Road Safety Authority and from road safety bodies elsewhere, including the UK, where there is a vicious campaign against cameras by people who want to continue speeding rampantly on British roads, is that we need speed cameras. We should proceed with them without delay. They were promised for the second quarter of 2008. I urge the Minister to carry out the road safety strategy.

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