Garda officers in charge of road traffic policing in the Republic “undoubtedly support” and were “totally committed” to the introduction of an online portal for cyclists to submit video footage of driver close passes and other infringements, Assistant Commissioner Paula Hilman has said.
She was speaking at a hearing of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice on Tuesday afternoon, where road traffic enforcement was on the agenda for discussion.
“It is part of our digital strategy and part of our digital evidence management system which we are currently rolling out,” Ms Hilman, who is the senior officer in charge of roads policing, said of the online portal.
“That said, it links in with other pieces of work and will be also reliant on funding and confirmation of the legislation and digital devices Bill that is currently being developed.”
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Replying to questions from Ciaran Cannon TD (FG) and Patrick Costello TD (Greens), Ms Hilman added the Garda had examined the technology in place in other jurisdictions “so we’re not sitting waiting for this, we are preparing for having an online portal”.
However, she explained that in some other countries road users who wanted to lodge video footage still had to make a report of the incident.
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“Being realistic to the committee, it will be 2024 before that (video portal) will be going live for us and I was speaking to our information officer to get that update in anticipation of that question being asked. But we are totally committed to it.”
In the interim, the existing Trafficwatch facility – through which reports can be made – would be relaunched. Any report made via Trafficwatch would soon go directly to the Garda’s control and dispatch (CAD) network – which is used to process the 999 system and dispatch gardaí to scenes.
Ms Hilman added when the reports were received via the CAD system, they will go to control centres which operate 24-7 and will therefore being considered for further action more quickly. Those changes would likely take place early next year, she said.
Cannon told the committee hearing he believed a culture existed within the Garda which tolerated illegal parking. He believed it was seen as victimless and that gardaí illegal parking patrol vehicles during the course of their work.
He added while new legislation was introduced in 2019 creating a new criminal offence of dangerously overtaking a cyclist, he believed there were “inconsistencies” in how this new law was enforced.
“In some cases, I would argue there is little or no knowledge of that legislation,” he said, adding in some stations when dangerous overtaking was reported the gardaí involved had no knowledge of the new legislation.
