Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I ask the Minister of State, on behalf of the Minister for Justice and Equality, to outline why speed vans and speed cameras are not located in dangerous black spots but appear to be placed in areas where speed increases out of necessity. The general public would hold that many of them are placed in borderline areas where the speed limit changes from 50 km/h to 80 km/h or from 50 km/h to 100 km/h and where it is easy to get caught. It would appear, therefore, that the purpose of these speed vans and speed cameras is to prioritise revenue collection over encouraging positive driver behaviour. If that is the case, it is blatantly unfair. What is the purpose of speed vans and cameras and what is the policy on their location? Who decides where they are located? Is it the Garda Síochána that makes those decisions? It does not make sense to me that it would be the Garda Síochána, because gardaí themselves are now getting caught while driving official Garda vehicles. I just did an interview for Galway Bay FM before coming into the Chamber about this very issue and received two calls immediately afterwards from gardaí who told me that they were caught in patrol cars while travelling to a serious incident. Serious administration time is being wasted here because, as the Minister of State knows, gardaí are exempt when they are on official business.

I will give the Minister of State a number of examples of black spots where one will be caught speeding and fined €80. The first is on the Tuam Road, near the main post office in Galway. One post office worker was caught there twice while coming out of the main post office. The speed limit is 50 km/h, but to get into the traffic he had to travel at 62 km/h on one occasion and 67 km/h on another; otherwise, he would have caused an accident or would never have got into the right lane. At the very same spot, an 82 year old man from Corrandulla was caught three times in one day, even though, generally speaking, 82 year old men are not speeders. I know of another case in which a taxi driver was caught three times in 27 minutes. In my own area of Oranmore on the coast road, one will see a speed camera van almost hidden, in the manner of a vehicle carrying out a covert operation. The widely held view is that this is nothing to do with improving driver behaviour but is simply a revenue-collecting exercise for the State.

I ask that the Minister review the speed limits in these areas because, at 50 km/h, they are too low. Instead of improving driver behaviour, they are actually causing dangerous driving. We should not be wasting Garda administrative time in this regard. We should also not be making gardaí feel they are in the wrong when they are trying to reach an incident in a timely manner. We must insist that these vans be located in accident black spots. Who is deciding the location of these speed vans? Where is all of the money going? How much money has been collected to date? Is the money going to the people in the vans? Are they on commission? If they are on commission then obviously they are going to go to locations where it is easy to catch people.

Finally, can speed vans park on private lands? I know of a case where a van was pulled in at Bushy Park church. It was actually parked on church grounds and fines were issued from that spot. The fine is €80 a pop, which is a lot of money, particularly if people are getting caught not once but twice and three times in a single day. That is a person's income for the day gone. We are talking about getting people back to work and giving them a fair deal, but there is no fairness in this system. It is full of errors. I look forward to the Minister of State's response.