Private firm to operate State's speed cameras

The number of speed cameras is to be increased as part of the Government's drive to reduce road fatalities, the Minister for Transport confirmed today.

Mr Seamus Brennan said he will be "contracting out" the plan and it is expected that a private company will be given responsibility for operating fixed speed-cameras around the State.

Mr Brennan said he had reached agreement on increasing the use of speed cameras with the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell.

The Minister was speaking at the launch of the National Safety Council's new ad campaign featuring penalty points, which will be aired on terrestrial television channels tonight.

Whatever the criticisms of the penalty points scheme, "the fact was that 23 per cent fewer people killed in the first six months of this year compared with the corresponding period the previous year," Mr Brennan said. More than 27,000 motorists have already received penalty points, he added.

But the Minister warned against complacency, noting that an insurance company report suggested drivers were starting to speed up again. "This is a day in, day out, month in, month out, battle [to reduce speeding]".

He confirmed that from July, non-wearing of seatbelts will be included in the list of offences punishable under the penalty points scheme.

The outgoing Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, said penalty points was designed to deal with driver offences which had resulted in 4,271 people being killed on the roads in the ten years to 2002.

"The message contained within this TV campaign will be reinforced, I can assure you, through visible garda enforcement."

"Drivers must be deterred from committing offences . . . . driver behaviour must be modified by making drivers fearful of the consequences of committing offences," Mr Byrne said. He said more than 15,000 speeding tickets were being issued each month.