GARDAÍ HAVE announced a speed camera initiative which could potentially cover 1,500 different locations throughout the State.

The Garda has signed a contract with a private consortium called GoSafe to provide vans with speed cameras to catch speeding motorists.

Assistant Commissioner John Twomey of the Garda National Traffic Bureau said an extra 6,000 hours a month will be spent in locations where motorists are known to speed or where there have been accidents.

Places where 85 per cent of the motorists are known to go over the speed limit will be targeted first. Mr Twomey said international evidence showed the compliance rate goes up to 50 per cent when such cameras are put in place.

The initiative is likely to begin in the middle of next month in time for the run-up to Christmas.

The locations will be flagged up on the Garda website in advance, but the times when the vans will be in operation will not be disclosed.

Last year a five-year contract worth €65 million was signed with GoSafe to provide 45 mobile cameras.

The assistant commissioner said it was not a revenue-gathering exercise or an attempt to persecute motorists, but an initiative designed to save lives.

Sgt Jim McAllister of the Garda Road Safety Unit said excessive speed was a factor in around 40 per cent of all road deaths especially in relation to single-vehicle crashes, which accounted for 106 of the 173 people killed to date on Irish roads this year.

He said speeding becomes a potential killer when the unexpected happens on the roads and speed limits are not a target to be reached but an advisory for ideal conditions.

Seen the first announcement of this a few weeks ago by the RSA,there also bringing in more severe punishments for L and young drivers with the intent on expanding it to older an full license drivers,was in the times iirc

dshamrock2000 wrote:
Places where 85 per cent of the motorists are known to go over the speed limit will be targeted first. Mr Twomey said international evidence showed the compliance rate goes up to 50 per cent when such cameras are put in place..


The assistant commissioner said it was not a revenue-gathering exercise or an attempt to persecute motorists, but an initiative designed to save lives.

Not a money raising exercise, but they will locate them where 85% of speeding is known to occur, instead of a focus on where the accidents happen.

How thick are we to believe that, but at least they are telling us where thay are going, now will they paint them day glo orange and prove its not a money making exercise.

[img]http://www.odditycentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/fish3.jpeg[/img]

"speed limits are not a target to be reached but an advisory for ideal conditions". Kind of a contradiction there, a speed "limit" sign is not an advisory if you fine me and put points on my licence!, Ideal conditions are not exactly common in ireland, if your telling me a 100kmh limit on a back road barely wide enough for 2 cars to pass each other is ideal i would say cop the fuck on, and then you go and limit dual carrigeways to 80kmh when theres enough room for 3 or 4 cars to fit side by side, I think anyone in power in Ireland assumes we are all a bunch of idiots that believe anything they say? Fact is we all know exactly what the government in power is like with regards to everything, not just road safety etc etc, its only a matter of time before they place that straw that breaks the camels back and we will be out in force protesting like France, we are far too quiet & accepting in ireland at the moment

Not a money making exercise?!

Who are they trying to fool? They've even said it in their press release that accident black spots will account for only 15% of the camera locations. How in under God does that make sense?! Jesus this country gets on my tits some times!

They don't need to tell us where they'll put the camera's, they'll all be on 2/3 lane dual carriage ways with a 60km limit within 400-500 metres after coming from a 100/120km limit. If 85% of the motorists are breaking the speed limit then maybe they should review the speed limit or road set up rather than try and increase compliance to 50% which is still way too low imo

dshamrock2000 wrote:
"speed limits are not a target to be reached but an advisory for ideal conditions". Kind of a contradiction there, a speed "limit" sign is not an advisory if you fine me and put points on my licence!, Ideal conditions are not exactly common in ireland, if your telling me a 100kmh limit on a back road barely wide enough for 2 cars to pass each other is ideal i would say cop the fuck on, and then you go and limit dual carrigeways to 80kmh when theres enough room for 3 or 4 cars to fit side by side, I think anyone in power in Ireland assumes we are all a bunch of idiots that believe anything they say? Fact is we all know exactly what the government in power is like with regards to everything, not just road safety etc etc, its only a matter of time before they place that straw that breaks the camels back and we will be out in force protesting like France, we are far too quiet & accepting in ireland at the moment

Agree 100% I drove around the ring of Kerry a couple of months back, we found a dingy pot hole ridden tight laneway off the side of a mountain weaving it's way through a forest. I was in 2nd gear wondering if third might be a bit brave when we passed a 100kph sign! the wife and I laughed it just seemed absurd.

dshamrock2000 wrote:
" its only a matter of time before they place that straw that breaks the camels back and we will be out in force protesting like France, we are far too quiet & accepting in ireland at the moment

I wish we could organise a strike like France do ! Money rules everything nowadays - petitions are a waste of time. Until you do something which has a financial impact (a strike!), the govt won't listen.

As said, where they will police it is a joke - if you look at the road deaths map for 2009, you can see very little deaths on motorways compared to the rest of the country/roads.

www.rsa.ie/en/RSA/Road-Safety/Our-Resear...and-Road-Collisions/

As far as I can make out from it, there was 1 death on the M50 in 2009. So, they should be on M50 1/239 * 100 = 0.42% of the time.

Quandry wrote:
Agree 100% I drove around the ring of Kerry a couple of months back, we found a dingy pot hole ridden tight laneway off the side of a mountain weaving it's way through a forest. I was in 2nd gear wondering if third might be a bit brave when we passed a 100kph sign! the wife and I laughed it just seemed absurd.

I was on that very road too, could not believe it. I noticed that some of the locals painted over part of the sign so it read 10kph instead!

What people need to remember is that the country if fecked for money and they will do anything that will EASILY bring in money.
Bet these guys will be trigger happy to impress too.
Safe driving and saving life's in just a byproduct used to explain and promote public backing for the exercise.
REVENUE all the way!!!!!!
I hate it and find it disgusting as they don't bother their engineers asses to put appropriate speed limits on roads. As someone said above many poor and severely potholed roads in parts of the country have 100kmh postings. The same limit as posted on our flagship M50 road.
I think if the REALLY cared about speeding with respect to road safety. They would have their checks outside schools and on proven Black spots, not on straight dual carriageways where the guards usually hide out. (maybe it will change and I will be proven wrong)

LOAD OF CRAP IMO.

What ? ? ? ? isn't the government getting enough money from the NCT ?

So what are the gardai gonna do while this private company rapes us, wont they be out of a job ?

Welcome too are world It's been going on here for years.
Average speed cameras and all

Marty J wrote:
What ? ? ? ? isn't the government getting enough money from the NCT ?


nail - on - head

The government in this country are a shower of corrupt, disgusting animals. They are too busy figuring out ways to steal more of the publics money to actually make road safety changes that would make a difference such as fixing roads or setting drivers education courses in secondary schools.

Lets be under no illusions, all they are interested in is generating revenue. The failure of a transport minister should be ashamed of himself and as for the road safety authority, they ought to be disbanded. Recently I saw an ad designed to shock young people which featured a girl lying dead on a slab. It was on during an ad break when Vincent Browne was on.... well done RSA... everyone knows 17 - 23 year olds will be watching Vincent Browne on a Wednesday - absolute waste of public money.

The NCT is a farce. The government introduced this planned annual NCT so that car owners who do not want to get rid of their older car will feel it is too much hassle to keep it and will buy new cars thus handing over the illegal tax which is VRT. They want every penny the people have and they are sitting around dreaming up ways of extracting it.

I set up this facebook page for people opposed to the annual NCT and it already had 400 fans www.facebook.com/pages/No-to-the-annual-NCT/111423092226524

I also setup a way to directly email our fantastic minister for Transport Noel Dempsey, so far thousands of people have emailed him in disgust.

www.sickireland.com/?page_id=94

I created this video to express what the government are doing with this annual NCT bullshit

gv1.3 wrote:

I created this video to express what the government are doing with this annual NCT bullshit


This mirrors what the UK government have been doing for years with the MOT. The only surprise is that it has taken this long to make it a yearly test.

I don't know if the test is more strict in the UK or S Ire but it is, in theory, a good idea and (in terms of the MOT) nothing to fear if you look after a car.

I applaud your efforts to voice protest (and I used your site to add my name).

Just playing Devils Advocate here - what reason is there for the govt to not just ignore the emails ?

Spanky wrote:

This mirrors what the UK government have been doing for years with the MOT. The only surprise is that it has taken this long to make it a yearly test.

I don't know if the test is more strict in the UK or S Ire but it is, in theory, a good idea and (in terms of the MOT) nothing to fear if you look after a car.

If it was implemented in the same manner as the MOT in the UK I wouldnt have an issue with it. Singling out cars that are 10 years or older is for one reason and one reason only - to persuade their owners that keeping their car is hassle and to upgrade and give the government VRT

The government have made the process of getting an NCT so complicated in the hopes people will see it as a huge headache, which it is. The three closest testing centres to me are booked out for 2 months and the test booking system will not allow you book a test any more than two months in the future.

In the UK there are places that do MOT's all over the place, it is a simple system that works, our government do not want it to work.

Spidey wrote:
I applaud your efforts to voice protest (and I used your site to add my name).

Just playing Devils Advocate here - what reason is there for the govt to not just ignore the emails ?

simple answer... no reason at all. They did reply to everyone that sent a mail but their reply was watery at best.

My objective is to encourage people to discuss issues such as the NCT and shout about them. Sometimes I feel that Irish people do not believe that an individual can make a difference. If by making it easy for someone to tell a minister that they think he is wrong I can in some tiny way make a person feel like they have used their voice it is worthwhile in my opinion. My hope is that they will then discuss these issues with their friends and get a little bit passionate.

I kind of look at it like this. Most people would have one issue or another with the members of government currently in power. A lot of those people just carry on everyday and never open up about how they feel on certain issues. If a politician sat beside them on a bus and said "tell me what you think of the job I am doing" then suddenly they might speak up. When they get home they might have a conversation with their friends and family and say "this guy asked me what I thought of the job he was doing and I told him how I felt about X Y and Z". This then can have a knock on effect and all of a sudden people are discussing the issues as they see them.

I am under no illusions, many people are already very vocal, but some people - often younger people - feel that no one gives a damn what they think.

Im rambling now

Good on you Dan. I really like that you're making a stand. We need to have a change of mindset in this country about enthusiasts cars. I hate that we're all lumped in to the 'boy racer' category just because some people don't understand the difference.

On a personal level I also agree that the government is ineffective on many fronts. I would like to see a change, but it would have to be a change for good, and not just a different party pushing the same money grabbing policies.

I think we need a Car Club lobby group. Anyone know how to set one up?

gv1.3 wrote:
If it was implemented in the same manner as the MOT in the UK I wouldnt have an issue with it. Singling out cars that are 10 years or older is for one reason and one reason only - to persuade their owners that keeping their car is hassle and to upgrade and give the government VRT

The government have made the process of getting an NCT so complicated in the hopes people will see it as a huge headache, which it is. The three closest testing centres to me are booked out for 2 months and the test booking system will not allow you book a test any more than two months in the future.

In the UK there are places that do MOT's all over the place, it is a simple system that works, our government do not want it to work.

The MOT in Northern Ireland is fairly strict and uses machinery that is a lot more advanced than the English etc mechanics type MOT would use i.e. they do a suspension test on vibrating plates and a brake test on a rolling road.

There are 15 test centres in NI www.dvtani.gov.uk/vehicletesting/testcentrelocations.asp

When they were upgraded to the new testing system (about 9 years ago I think), there was a massive waiting list. This was most likely caused by re-tests as older cars failed.

Now you can book a test for the same day (sometimes) but always within a week so I assume the NCT will go a similar way in time.

For now its going to be a complete PITA but at least its only every 2 years .... for the time being.

BTW the MR2 and Megane (now sold) flew throuhg the MOTs with no probs and without a service/check before hand (other than lights).

Only prob was that my windscreen washers were frozen on the megane and it would (in theory) have been a fail if they didn't work ... thankfully they defrosted in time