Councillor calls for return of Dunkettle traffic video livestream

Restarting the Dunkettle interchange video livestream would require garda permission, Cork City Council has said.

The traffic live stream at the interchange was disabled in April. Video streams were previously available on a dedicated website and app, informing motorists of traffic conditions.

Cork City Council initially installed the cameras. They were overseen by Transport Infrastructure Ireland, which told The Echo that the live streams had been disabled as part of an ongoing review of their use 12 months after the completion of the interchange upgrade.

At Monday’s council meeting, Labour councillor Peter Horgan proposed that the authority seek the costings to adopt the operation of the Dunkettle traffic app “to ensure the camera feeds on the app are restarted and maintained”.

He suggested looking at funding streams from the Department of Transport, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, and the National Transport Authority to offset the cost.

Noel Murtagh, director of local area development and operations, said: “An Garda Síochána have got an independent CCTV system located around the city centre to monitor and react to incidents, events, and antisocial behaviour. This is separate and not shared with Cork City Council, for GDPR reasons.

“Any expansion of the current garda CCTV system in public spaces would require permission under Section 27 of the Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Act 2023.”

He said this would involve the Garda commissioner authorising the installation and operation of CCTV, saying any specific request for additional CCTV coverage should be discussed at the Joint Policing Committee.

Mr Horgan told The Echo that something needed to be done to ease pressure on commuters caused by traffic in the area.

“We need to ensure that we have the best transport system that allows flows of traffic, it’s not good enough for the passing of the parcel on a near-monthly basis now,” he said.