The Cabinet is to consider on Monday a report recommending the privatisation of speed cameras, which says that more than €70 million could be raised in the first year of the system's full operation, writes Liam Reid, Political Reporter.
The report, compiled by an expert working group comprising senior officials and including the Garda, recommends a new system of privatised mobile speed cameras which would be used to target between 500 and 600 blackspot sites around the country.
More speed checks should take place at weekends than on weekdays, and the highest proportion of checks should take place between midnight and 3am. It also recommends that 80 per cent of the speed checks should be from hidden cameras during the first year.
Because many fatal accidents are attributed to speeding on minor roads the report recommends that only 3 per cent of checks should take place on motorways and dual carriageways, and that half should be on national roads.
The privatisation of the system will need Cabinet approval and the introduction of legislation and regulations to enable non-Garda personnel to operate the cameras and process the fine information.
The privatised system should remain under the control and direction of An Garda Síochána, and it should not be financed from the fines revenue, but directly by the State, the report states.
It says that the cost of operating the system for the first five years will be €25 million. When the system is fully functioning "the revenue from speeding fixed charges will be considerable - prospectively €70 million per anum".
"However as driver compliance increases, this will decrease, but it is anticipated that it will continue to exceed the cost of operating the system."
The report says the sole aim of the camera system should be to decrease road deaths and injuries. The cameras should be used to increase compliance with speed limits across the whole network and reduce speed in specific accident blackspots.Because 91 per cent of the country's roads are rural, the report advises that most of the cameras should be mobile as fixed cameras could target only a small portion of these routes.
The report states that 60 per cent of speed-related fatalities and 70 per cent of speed-related injuries occur on regional and local roads.
It states that there is a good case for using fixed cameras "at a limited number of motorway and dual carriageway locations with a previous history of speed-related collisions".
The mobile cameras will be able to operate covertly, most likely on heavily trafficked routes, but covert checks will be most effective in deterring drivers who tend to consistently offend.
The report advises that drivers "must be convinced of the reason for choosing each and every site". The National Roads Authority and the Garda have been working on identifying accident blackspots and areas of high speeding risk.
The system is seen as an essential measure to comply with the official Government target of carrying out 11.1 million speed checks a year, roughly five times the current rate.