I welcome elements of the National Safety Camera Strategy in terms of expanding our safety camera network to 1,900 zones and targeting the high collision black spots. However, we cannot ignore the sheer scale of the violations occurring everywhere in my constituency and elsewhere. We need a lot more cameras and enforcement after it is handed over to TII. Equally, we have to look at the smaller roads and local authority areas also. Let us look at bus lanes, for example. An Garda Síochána issues over 6,000 fixed-charge notices a year to drivers unlawfully using these but there is no real deterrent. A survey by irishcycle.com on Westland Row near Leinster House recorded nearly one car per minute blatantly breaking bus-priority measures. To combat this massive volume, a strategy launching at just one or two pilot locations is completely inadequate and the €60 fine for blocking a bus lane is no real deterrent. It is happening all over and it is not about people turning 50 m from a filter lane; it is selfish and dangerous driving, so we need serious penalty points. Constituents also have a serious problem with the breaking of lights, again, not just on regional roads. The covert traffic monitoring conducted by RTÉ "Prime Time" recorded more than 60 dangerous red-light violations in just an eight-hour window across a tiny handful of junctions. That is death and injury waiting to happen around every single corner. We need the automated safety of these measures but until the strategy delivers widespread cameras everywhere instead of tiny pilots on just regional and national roads, it will be inadequate.

Sentiment score: -0.31