Transport chiefs in Britain have insisted that speed cameras are effective in saving lives, despite reports that they plan to curtail their use on the British road network.
Britain has 6,000 speed cameras in operation and the number of fines from them soared to almost 1.8 million last year, compared to just over 200,000 ten years ago.
The location of cameras is decided by so-called "camera partnerships", bodies made up of local authorities and members of local police forces.
But reports in the London Times newspaper last week said the British Department of Transport would abolish a system where fines emanating from speed cameras are recycled to build more speed cameras.
The partnerships would assume wider road safety functions and use cameras only as a last resort, the report said. Money would be collected centrally and distributed across Britain for use on a wide range of road safety measures.
This "cash for cameras" scheme has come in for heavy criticism and has been blamed for a lack of public confidence in the operation of speed cameras. A recent survey by Britain's Institute of Advanced Motorists showed that 45 per cent of motorists believed cameras were purely for revenue generation. A spokesman for the Department of Transport in London said its speed camera policy was "under review" but pointed out a study on their effectiveness by the University of London had not yet been published.
"We have made no decisions," he said. "According to the Times you'd think it was a fait accompli. That is not the case."
"We haven't yet got receipt of the report to tell us what the casualty savings are. No doubt there will be some, cameras make the roads safer, but as to what the figures are we don't know yet.
"Ministers know that cameras do save lives and do improve road safety," he added.
Anti-speed camera group Safe Speed welcomed the report that the expansion of the UK's speed camera network would be halted by new procedures.
The group's founder, Paul Smith, said the government appeared to be "moving in the right direction, but it is far too little and far too late."
"Speed cameras do not make our roads safer and never will," he said.
"They are a dangerous distraction and must be scrapped. They are founded only on bad science, faulty logic, commercial interest and oversimplified thinking.
"After 12 years of speed cameras there is still absolutely no scientific evidence to show that they have an overall beneficial effect on road safety."
Pro-camera group Brake said it would be "extremely concerned" at any plans to freeze the addition of more cameras.
Here, Minister for Transport Martin Cullen said in August that legislation would be brought forward in the current Dáil term paving the way for a network of privately run speed cameras.
However, no legislation has yet come before the House and Mr Cullen told a Dáil committee earlier this month that legislation would be brought forward "shortly".
Unlike the British experience, money from the fines collected in the Republic will go directly to the Exchequer and will not be used to finance the system, which will cost €25 million to operate in its first five years. Both Mr Cullen and Minister for Justice Michael McDowell have said the new camera system will remain under the direction of the Garda with the assistance of the National Roads Authority.
"The criteria for site selection will be grounded on collision history and the history of speeding incidents," Mr Cullen told the committee last month.
