Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

337. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of GoSafe speed camera vehicles at present. [43458/23]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy will be aware, under the Garda Síochána Act 2005 (as amended), the Garda Commissioner is responsible for the administration and management of An Garda Síochána, including the enforcement of road traffic legislation. The Commissioner is also responsible for procurement and related contract management. As Minister, I have no role in such matters. I am advised however by Garda authorities that, as of 25 September, there were 54 vehicles in the GoSafe fleet.

I recently announced an extra €1.2 million is to be allocated towards GoSafe, which will provide an extra 1,500 hours of monitoring every month until the end of the year. This brings the total number of monitoring hours to 9,000 hours per month.

The role of the Safety Camera Contract is critical in the context of road traffic enforcement, improving road safety by changing driver behaviour. This is in order to reduce road traffic fatalities and serious injuries by reducing the incidence of drivers exceeding stipulated speed limits, in circumstances where speeding is known to be a significant factor behind serious collisions. As such, the deployment of safety cameras is determined by road safety considerations as opposed to revenue maximisation.

Under the current contract, GoSafe provides an annual minimum of 90,000 hours of monitoring and surveying vehicle speed across 1,363 speed camera zones nationally. Details of the location of each of these zones is publicly available on the Garda website at the following link: www.garda.ie/en/roads-policing/safety-cameras/