Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 29 Sep 1999

Vol. 508 No. 1

Written Answers. - Garda CCTV.

Róisín Shortall

Ceist:

775 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the reason for the delay in installing the closed circuit television in Finglas, Dublin 11; the consideration, if any, he has given to giving the work to private contractors in view of the shortage of Garda technicians; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18046/99]

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. O'Donoghue):

Finglas is one of six locations that have been prioritised for the installation of Garda CCTV systems as an aid to policing by the CCTV advisory committee. The list of locations in alphabetical order is as follows: Bray, Cork, Dublin (South Central), Dundalk, Finglas and Limerick.

Currently the Cork city and Dublin (South Central) Garda CCTV projects are being processed.

The Garda telecommunications section is responsible for the planning and implementation of town centre Garda CCTV schemes. Before contractors can be engaged to work on such schemes, there is a significant amount of planning and specification tender work to be carried out.

A shortage of technicians in the telecommunications section of the Garda Síochána has impacted on the progress in implementing a CCTV system in Finglas. New technicians have been recruited and are now coming on stream but given training needs and so forth, it will, realistically, be some months before the new technicians will be available to commence work on new projects in the telecommunications area, including CCTV.

Private contractors are currently used at the installation phase of Garda CCTV systems. However, the input of the Garda telecommunications section is required at the design, evaluation of tenders and commissioning stages of a CCTV project to ensure,inter alia, that the CCTV systems are of maximum benefit to local policing operations. A review of Garda CCTV systems is also under way at this time and consideration is being given to the feasibility of employing private contractors at other stages in the planning and installation of Garda CCTV systems.

It is intended to commence the planning and implementation of Garda CCTV systems in each of the prioritised locations, including Finglas, as soon as possible.