Government departments are passing the buck and not taking responsibility for introducing speed cameras which would make Irish roads safer, the chairman of the Road Safety Authority (RSA) said yesterday.
Following nine deaths on Irish roads this week, Gay Byrne said he had informed the Minister for Transport that he and the members of the RSA board were "very angry" and "restive" at delays in implementing speed cameras.
"We were promised speed cameras in 2006, we were then promised speed cameras in 2007, we are now in 2008, and looks to me as if we're going to go through 2008 without them.
"This makes the members of the board of the RSA extremely annoyed, extremely tetchy and they are quite entitled to be so.
"The Minister for Transport passes it on to the Department of Justice, the Department of Justice passes it on to the Department of Finance and that is the way the Civil Service operates," he said.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice said issues had arisen in finding a tender to implement speed cameras because costs involved were "substantially higher" than estimates.
"The Minister will bring proposals to Government shortly taking into account issues of value for money and the commitment, as is evidenced by the enhanced activity by An Garda Síochána, to reduce speeding on our roads," he said.
Mr Byrne said he "very often" felt frustrated in trying to get the road-safety message across.
He was speaking at the launch of the Mace Cycling Safely To School campaign which will see 450,000 students targeted with the road-safety message.
Mr Byrne described the project as a "wonderful initiative" which started at a very "benign level" by encouraging school children to follow road-safety rules.
He played down speculation about his resignation over the Government's delay in rolling out a system of speed cameras.
"I am merely registering the fact again that we are long, long overdue speed cameras in this country . . . They are in operation throughout most of the best practice countries and they do have an effect and will have an effect here."
He said the promise he made taking his post, that he would quit if he continued to come up against political hurdles, still stood.
