'Self-financing’ road safety camera system costs €11m

The privately run road safety camera system, which was supposed to be self-financing, cost the State €11m in 2012.

The GoSafe cameras generated €4.6m in revenue from fines in 2012, but the total cost of the system came to €15.6m, said the C&AG.

This left the Garda Síochána footing the bill of €11m, forcing it to raid the €21.5m it earned from issuing fixed charge notices to pay the shortfall.

In its report, the watchdog said the system was initially supposed to generate annual revenue from speeding fines of between €40m and €70m a year.

Following the tendering process, it emerged that the cost of the camera network would be “significantly greater” than previously projected. This led to the expected revenue being reduced to €27m.

It noted that despite advice to the Government in 2009 that “revenue would exceed costs”, the Government approved the scheme.

The GoSafe Consortium was awarded the contract and commenced operations in Nov 2010. Figures show that the number of detections have dropped from 70,000 between Jan 2011 and June 2011 to over 30,000 between July 2012 and Dec 2012.

The report noted that fatal collisions have fallen over this time, but pointed out that the decline “reduced very considerably” before the outsourced cameras were deployed.

It said there has been a significant improved in compliance with speed limits between 2011 and 2013.

The report said the cost of the system was €15.8m in 2011 and €15.6m in 2012, with a projected cost of €16.6m in 2013.