Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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403. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality his plans for enforcing speed limits in view of the clear disregard for speed limits on certain roads as evidenced on National Slow Down Day; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33477/13]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Policing Priorities I have set for 2013 include an emphasis on continuing to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries on our roads and An Garda Síochána has my full support in this regard. The Deputy will appreciate that we have seen very positive sustained improvements in the attitudes and behaviour of all road users which underpinned another record year in terms of road safety in Ireland in 2012 and enforcement by the Garda authorities continues to focus on high risk behaviour, including speeding, and on identified vulnerable road users with the key objective of reducing the number of serious injury collisions and fatalities on our roads.

I can assure the Deputy that An Garda Síochána is committed to working closely with all road safety agencies and continues to conduct further specific targeted visible enforcement initiatives, in addition to the recent Operation Slowdown and related enforcement activity, in areas where fatal and serious injury collisions are likely to occur. The introduction of the safety camera network has seen sustained improvements in driver behaviour across the speed enforcement zones, and earlier this year An Garda Síochána announced extensions to these zones, based on an analysis and speed and collision data. Awareness and education campaigns with a focus in speeding are also conducted as part of An Garda Síochána's ongoing commitment to work with all road safety partners and contribute fully to the effective implementation of the Road Safety Strategy 2013 - 2020.

Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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404. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if he will provide further financial assistance to enable the installation of speed cameras. [33478/13]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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In November, 2009 a contract was concluded for the provision of an outsourced safety camera network to An Garda Síochána. The outsourced safety camera network commenced operations in November 2010. The service provider, Go Safe, provides 6,000 speed monitoring hours and 1,475 traffic survey hours per month across the country and is contracted to provide the service for five years (from November 2010) with an option to extend provision of the service for one further year.

There are no current proposals to provide additional funding for the installation of safety cameras, other than that already provided for in accordance with the existing contract. In this regard I am advised that speed enforcement zones are continually reviewed in light of survey data, collision history and local feedback to ensure that enforcement activity is properly targeted. An Garda Síochána recently announced that a review of the existing zones has been undertaken using collision data from 2006 to 2012 and speed surveys. It was further announced that, as of March, 2013, an additional 243 stretches of road have been identified as having a collision history suitable for inclusion as a speed enforcement zone and that there are now a total of 727 sections of road identified as speed enforcement zones. The locations of these speed enforcement zones are in the public domain and are available on the Garda website www.garda.ie