Motor industry group backs FG TD’s call for car-tracking devices

A motor industry body has backed a suggestion by a Fine Gael backbencher that all vehicles should have tracking devices fitted to help gardaí find them when they are stolen or used in crime.

Noel Harrington, a TD for Cork South West was speaking in the Dáil on the topical issue of car theft late last week.

"We need to find a legislative solution for implementing a technological framework that would revolutionise the capacity of the Garda Síochána to combat crime, particularly mobile crime, by taking the legs from under the criminal."

Investment in tracking technology would deliver a significant return to the State, he said.

“The criminals involved are at their most vulnerable in the period between the theft of the car from an innocent owner’s driveway and the point at which it enters a secure lock-up or breaker’s yard. Criminals know that stolen cars can blend in with other traffic on the streets, highways and motorways.

“However, if a tracking device is activated, a stolen car will, from a technological perspective, light up like a Christmas tree. Garda resources, which are in great demand, could then be targeted at tracking stolen cars, rather than used in a random manner.”

Mr Harrington said much of the recent “hyperbole” surrounding rural crime failed “spectacularly” to offer real solutions.

He called on Minister of State Damien English to raise the matter with the Department of Transport and to ask it to liaise with the Department of Justice.

Replying on behalf of his colleague, Minister for Transport Paschal Donohoe, Mr English said it may be possible to raise the matter at EU level at a meeting with the competition commissioner this week.

But he said the Minister for Transport was not aware of any EU proposals mandating the fitting of tracking devices for the specific purpose of tracking stolen vehicles.

Tom Cullen, director of the Society of the Irish Motor Industry, said a lot of vehicles already had such telematics systems, which also enabled live-tracking in the event of theft.

Devices were already being used on a voluntary basis for insurance purposes, for example, to record the usage of the car and the behaviour of the driver.

“There’s no question that there are are data protection questions to be answered in all of this but I think anything in the future of vehicle technology that aids in the reduction of crime is something that the industry would certainly support.”