Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan has asked department officials to probe a specific speed camera that issued 30,000 fines in one year. 

The camera, which has only been in operation since May of last year, is placed near a busy national road. Some locals have claimed that the speed limit at its location is responsible for the high number of fines. 

Due to the structure of the busy road, the speed limit suddenly transitions from 100 kilometres per hour to 80 kilometres per hour, potentially leading to a high number of drivers being flagged for speeding. 

Issues raised over the static camera, which is positioned at the N25 near Glenmore Co, Kilkenny, led Transport Infrastructure Ireland to approve a request from Kilkenny County Council to erect new signage on the road. 

The matter has now been raised further. It was brought to the attention of Minister O’Callaghan in the Dáil this week, when he stressed that speed cameras are ‘not about catching people out’. 

However, he was quickly presented with figures from the camera by Labour TD George Lawlor, along with another in Carlow that has issued 15,580 fines, who said it indicates that there are ‘aberrations in different parts of the country’. 

The Justice Minister later said he didn’t have an immediate answer, but the matter was under review. ‘Maybe there is a road people speed on consistently,’ he said. 

‘I do not know the answer, but I will look at it, and I will ask officials to inquire into it because there is a significant deviation between the notices being issued by cameras in one area and those in other areas,’ he continued. 

However, Mr Lawlor suggested that people were being treated ‘unfairly’ on the road. ‘It is beyond the pale to think we are penalising people unfairly. They must be treated justly, and if it comes to it, their fines and points must be rescinded,’ he stressed. 

Concluding his thoughts on the unusual camera, Mr O’Callaghan admitted that ‘it seems unusual that two cameras seem to have so many more fixed charge notices emanating from them than others.’ 

‘I suspect the reason is the positioning of the camera, perhaps coming out of an area that permits a faster speed limit into an area that is perhaps very close, with a slower speed limit. That could be the reason for it. I have asked because the figures jumped out at me when I saw them,’ he later added.