Changes in ‘driver behaviour’ responsible for falling road traffic prosecutions, says Minister

A change in “driver behaviour” is the reason for a significant drop in the detection of road traffic offences, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has said.

However, the Minister said “we all have to do more” as road deaths are trending “in the wrong direction”.

Ms McEntee was speaking after the deaths of five people on Irish roads last weekend and an Irish Times report showing far fewer motorists are being caught speeding, using mobile phones and drink driving compared with recent years.

The decrease has been variously attributed to fewer gardaí assigned to roads policing units, the Garda roster system or changes in driver behaviour during the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw fewer cars and more gardaí on the roads.

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Ms McEntee conceded there has been a decrease in detections of road traffic offences in recent years “but what we’re actually experiencing is a change in behaviour”.

She said the number of people detected for mobile phone use has dropped as drivers are more likely to use Bluetooth devices, while the number of seat belt detections has decreased because people are increasingly likely to wear their belts.

“Speed is still the number one killer,” the Minister said, adding that she had made more funding available for GoSafe speed detection vans for this and next year.

Ms McEntee was speaking at the opening of the new women’s prison in Limerick, which can accommodate 56 inmates in single cells. The facility, which cost €53 million and took four years to build, replaces the old E-Wing of Limerick Men’s Prison, which was previously used to house women inmates and dates to 1821.

The new facility is equipped with in-cell telephones, televisions, showers and toilets as well as extensive educational and training facilities. A number of the cells are two-room “apartment-style” suites designed for long-term prisoners preparing to return to society.

Two of the cells are designed for mothers nursing infants and are equipped with baby-changing facilities.

Ms McEntee said the sad fact is that for many of the women coming into the prison, the accommodation is much better than they experienced on the outside. She wants to see these facilities rolled out across the prison estate.

The new prison, which started taking inmates in February, is currently at 92 per cent capacity while overall the prison system is at 103 per cent.

Ms McEntee said she “will not rule out any space being used at the moment” to increase capacity, including the old E-Wing building. “We need to increase our capacity right across the prison service, not just in Limerick.”

She plans to develop “short-term capital projects” to increase capacity at four prisons – Castlerea, Cloverhill, the Midlands and Mountjoy – over the next five years. This will provide cells for at least 620 more prisoners, she said.

Regarding the terror attacks in Belgium and France over the last week and the outbreak of violence in Israel and Palestine, the Minister said the terrorism threat level in Ireland remains unchanged.

“As it currently stands, we are not escalating and I haven’t been given any information that we are escalating our current level but that needs to be kept under review always.”

The threat level in Ireland remains at “moderate”, indicating that “an attack is possible but not likely”. The Minister will discuss the attacks at a meeting of EU justice ministers in Luxembourg on Thursday.

She also condemned the attack on Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital in Gaza on Tuesday, which Palestinian authorities say killed more than 470 people and injured many more. Israel and Hamas have blamed each other for the attack.

“What we’ve seen in the last days in Gaza is absolutely horrific. People seeking safety were killed in an instant.”

The Minister said the international community “must do everything we can to open up humanitarian corridors to Gaza”.