Justice Department demand answers after 17 Go Safe speeding cases dismissed by Judge

Serious questions have been raised over the validity of speeding prosecutions brought to court following the use of Go Safe vans after a judge threw out another 17 cases yesterday.

The Department of Justice has asked gardaí for a new report into the operation of Go Safe traffic cameras after Judge Sean MacBride dismissed all 17 prosecutions brought before him at Monaghan District Court.

The judge said he believed “the chain of evidence was inherently flawed” and there were “defects in the serving of the summonses”.

The judge also said he would be dismissing all such cases in his court area, which covers Cavan and Monaghan.

A Department of Justice spokesman said that “the department can confirm that it has asked the Garda authorities for a report on the cases dismissed today by Monaghan District Court”.

Judge MacBride also claimed the Go Safe vans were often operating just inside or outside 30km/h zones, in places where detecting offences was like fishing in a “goldfish bowl”, adding the ‘Go Safe’ operation was actually “bringing the law into disrepute”.

Garda Insp John Joseph McDonald, of the Garda Fixed Penalty Office in Thurles, had travelled to Monaghan for the cases and refuted the judge’s remarks, claiming the vans were located in ‘black spot’ areas where serious or fatal accidents had occurred and insisting the speed vans were “saving 25 lives a year on Irish roads”.

The dismissal of the 17 cases comes less than two months after 98 cases were dismissed at a sitting of Ennis District Court by Judge Patrick Durcan. The cases were dismissed on the basis that Go Safe staff were unable to demonstrate the required legal authority to give evidence on behalf of gardaí in relation to cases in court.

Go Safe signed an €80m contract with An Garda Síochána in 2009 to operate a fleet of vans which work alongside the vans operated by gardaí themselves.

The Department of Justice received an initial report from the Garda authorities in relation to those cases (at Ennis District Court) which outlines the issues raised in court and “notes that the gardaí are seeking legal advice regarding the decisions in those cases”.

The solicitor who brought the test case in Ennis, Daragh Hassett, said in Co Clare: “Practically no Go Safe cases have proceeded since the 98 were struck out,” adding there were as many as “60 or 70 cases in the queue”.

Elsewhere, Fine Gael TD for Limerick, Patrick O’Donovan, has written to the chair of the Oireachtas Transport Committee requesting a review of the operation of Go Safe vans.