Preferred firm named for speed cameras

AN IRISH, French and Australian consortium including the Co Kerry-based Spectra Group, headed by businessman Xavier McAuliffe, was yesterday identified as the preferred bidder in the Government contract for privatised speed cameras.

The contract, believed to be worth about €25 million per year, is for about 6,000 hours of vehicle speed monitoring per month at accident black spots across the State.

A mixture of fixed cameras and mobile vehicles is to be used.

The specification states that more than 90 per cent of speed checks would be on regional or rural roads, with more detection on weekends than on weekdays, and more detection between midnight and 3am.

Together with traditional detection methods, the new contract is aimed at ensuring at least half of the State's 1.8 million registered vehicles pass through an active enforcement area at least once a month.

The partners in the preferred bidder consortium are Spectra, French firm Egis, the parent company of Transroute which operates the Dublin Port Tunnel, and Redflex, an Australian multinational.

The equipment is to be supplied by Redflex and Mulhuddart-based Electro Automation. The Irish firm is already involved with Egis on eTrip electronic tags which are used to pay motorway tolls and charges in city car parks.

Department of Justice and industry sources agreed yesterday that it was important now to get the new system up and running as soon as possible.

Sources indicated that testing could get under way by autumn, with a visible presence of speed camera vehicles coinciding with a major publicity campaign by the Road Safety Authority.

Noel Brett, the chief executive of the Road Safety Authority, was on his way to the United States yesterday, and authority chairman Gay Byrne said he had not been informed.

Mr Byrne said: "If it is so, it is good news. I imagine we will now have a honeymoon period where we now say [the speed cameras] are coming, followed by a honeymoon period telling you they are here and that they will be visible for all to see, and then the guards or whoever will get on and do their thing" he said.

Just last week Mr Byrne said he was "angry and frustrated" at the delays in the contract.

The identification of the preferred bidder yesterday coincided with notices sent to the five unsuccessful bidders that they would have two weeks from yesterday to launch an appeal.

Failing an appeal, negotiations will begin between the consortium and the Garda over the final details and locations of the speed cameras.

The secretary general of the Department of Justice, Seán Aylward, told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport earlier this year that the capacity of the proposed network of 6,000 camera hours could generate half a million speed camera penalties a year.

The Courts Service has expressed concern over the impact the extra penalties will have on the justice system.