Vol. 498 No. 1
333 Mrs. Owen asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of people from July 1997 to July 1998, who have been served with on the spot fines for speeding, who were identified using the GATSO vans; the amount of money collected as a result of these fines; the number of staff, both gardaí and civilians, involved in the processing of these fines; and the approximate cost of this staff. [26717/98]
I am informed by the Garda authorities that while speeding offences have been detected since July 1996, using the speed detection equipment GATSO, fines on the spot for offences detected by GATSO were not issued until April 1998, as prior to that date, it was not technically possible to do so. Prosecutions for such offences detected by GATSO between July 1996 and April 1998 were dealt with manually by way of summons. Statistics in relation to these summonses are not readily available.
A total of 6,072 fines on the spot were issued between April 1998 and July 1998 using GATSO. Approximately £250,000 was collected by way of these fines while court imposed fines amounted to £9,000.
I understand that four gardaí were assigned to the operation of GATSO between April 1998 and July 1998 and that the cost involved was £3,800 per week.
The civilian staff assigned to the fines office in both Dublin and Cork processed these fines. The Deputy will appreciate that it not possible to quantify the cost involved as the civilians performed other duties as well as the processing of these fines.
