Concern that fewer than 1% of incidents reported under Garda traffic system resulted in a fine

A Cork TD has raised concern that fewer than 1% of incidents reported under a new online Garda traffic system have resulted in a fine.

Traffic Watch is a partnership approach between gardaí and the public to improve driver behaviour, reducing the number of road collisions and fatalities.

Members of the public can report non-emergency traffic-related incidents using an online reporting form. These reports are logged by Garda staff at the Garda Information Services Centre who then forward the report to the superintendent in the relevant community engagement area to progress.

Liam Quaide, Social Democrats TD for East Cork, was told by justice minister Jim O’Callaghan, following a parliamentary question, that since the introduction of the online Traffic Watch system on August 8 last year “there have been 4,885 incidents created on [the Garda] Pulse [system] that were reported by the Traffic Watch reporting system.

“As of the same date, there have been 60 fixed charge notices issued for offences that were reported by the Traffic Watch reporting system. Of those, 30 resulted in the payment of a fine.”

This means that, nationally, just 1.2% of reports resulted in a fixed charge notice being issued, and just 0.6% resulted in the payment of a fine.

Mr Quaide told The Echo: “It’s concerning to see such a small fraction of fixed charge notices and fines emanating from a large volume of reported incidents through the Traffic Watch system.

“It would be important to know how resourced this system is to carry out its work given the wider failure of successive governments to adequately staff the gardaí.”