The Garda closed-circuit television security system, which uses cameras in key areas as an aid to fighting street crime, is being expanded to 10 new locations throughout the State, the Minister for Justice announced yesterday.
Mr O'Donoghue, speaking in Pearse Street Garda station, Dublin, said: "Unquestionably, wherever the cameras have been used they have proved a very effective weapon against street crime."
He said the plan was to spend £12 million on CCTV over the next three years, a 500 per cent increase. As a first step £4 million was being provided in 2001 for CCTV.
The first systems were installed in Temple Bar in Dublin, the Dublin north central area and Tralee. The scheme in south central Dublin is being expanded and installation is in progress in Cork city.
The new priority areas will be Athlone, Bray, Clondalkin, Dundalk, Dun Laoghaire, Finglas, Galway, Limerick, Tallaght and Waterford.
The Minister said the CCTV systems, using high-technology cameras, had proved a valuable tool in the prevention and detection of crime and in facilitating a more efficient use of Garda resources.
"The Garda authorities have confirmed its success and advised that assaults, drug-dealing, `on street crime' and so forth have dropped very appreciably where the cameras are in place," Mr O'Donoghue said.
The CCTV systems had also addressed a number of particular policing problems, for example, syringe attacks on tourists and at ATMs and anti-social behaviour, and had proved vital to the success of a number of Garda operations, he said.
The systems had been greatly welcome as they created a safer environment in which people could go about their daily business in the knowledge that criminal elements were unlikely to commit offences in the presence of the cameras.
The new cameras would be installed in the 10 locations in 2001 and 2002. At least a further six installations would begin in 2003.
The Minister stressed that the cameras were an aid in preventing crime and not the answer.
They would result in a more efficient deployment of Garda resources and release gardai for other duties.
This was echoed by the Assistant Commissioner, Mr Joseph Egan, who told The Irish Times: "It won't displace police work. It is only an aid but a very valuable one. We won't be reducing the Garda on the street."
The Assistant Commissioner said the system would enable gardai to respond more quickly to a crime. The monitoring system also recorded, so they also had video evidence.
The Minister also announced a grant scheme in 2001 to cater for those communities which would like to press ahead on their own with a local CCTV system. It would be up to the local interests to install and monitor the CCTV schemes, but grant assistance would be provided.
To qualify for grant aid, certain minimum standards would have to be met.
There were 40 applications on hand at present, and the Garda monitoring committees would look at areas of greatest need, he said.
Insp Dan Quill, of Pearse Street station, said the number of cameras in Dublin city centre was the largest in the State.
A monitoring panel of screens was installed in the station. Initially 10 cameras were placed in the Temple Bar area, but the scheme had been extended to take in a wider area, including Grafton Street, and there would be 28 cameras altogether. North of the Liffey there were 35 cameras being monitored on screens in O'Connell Street Garda station.
The expansion of the scheme was criticised yesterday by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties director, Mr Donncha O'Connell, as a cosmetic exercise. He said there was ample evidence from other jurisdictions that a greater police presence and improved street lighting could have just as significant an impact.
Mr O'Connell said the Minister for Justice's enthusiasm for CCTV contrasted sharply with introducing such technology into police custody suites.