Councillor claims Gardai are 'revenue collectors'
The issuing of 5,000 speeding tickets by city gardaí last year showed that the force was a revenue collector, targeting many motorists who were largely law-abiding.
Cllr Padraig Conneely said during his recent visits to court to face charges of illegal parking, he had witnessed many motorists hauled before the judge on allegations of exceeding the speed limit by as little as 2km.
“They were there while murderers and sex offenders were being remanded, ordinary people frightened out of their lives because they were 10km over the speed limit,” he exclaimed.
“More discretion should be used. The gardaí are a revenue collector. There was a report last week that €30 million was collected by gardaí on the roads, 350,000 people were fined in 2014. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.”
He pointed to the placing of the speeding vans parked in the likes of Bushypark and outside the Trappers Inn on the Tuam Road which were not high-accident locations.
“People going nowhere, not in a hurry, on a good road, no accident being recorded. I’d ask the Chief Superintendant, you’re a reasonable man yourself, you’re a man of the world, you wouldn’t take dictation from the Department, discretion should be used where they’re 10km over.”
Chief Supt Tom Curley revealed that 5,000 speeding tickets had been issued in the city last year. But his officers had no say over where those vans which were privately operated would be located.
If there was a genuine reason for breaking the speed limit, motorists could write to the Department outlining their situation.
“As long as I’m sitting at this table, there will be more enforcement of road traffic offences, there’s no hard luck stories really. We have to abide by the regulations. If we all did, it would make a safer place to drive and walk and cycle on,” he warned.
He then turned to the Fine Gael representative and said, to loud guffaws: “The only bit of advice I can give Cllr Conneely is slow down.”