The Irish Independent today reports that private speed cameras could be used to detect motor tax dodgers. This comes following reports the Government is desperately trying to recover €100m worth of car tax lost each year. The paper says: “Hundreds of thousands of motorists face the prospect of being captured speeding on camera — and not having car tax. The plan to get in more cash emerged in a report by the taxpayers’ watchdog, which, at the same time, details a litany of waste of money by government departments and state agencies. The Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) revealed in his annual report that €225m had been spent on planning projects that have now been mothballed. They include €216m on Metro North, Metro West and the DART Underground and €10m on third-level projects.

The National Roads Authority also agreed to pay an additional €16m to a company working on the N6 Ballinasloe road after a dispute over completion of work. It also expects to pay €6.7m a year to the companies that built the M3 and Limerick Tunnel because traffic volumes are lower than expected. The annual “traffic guarantee payments” will be paid to the M3 contractor until 2025 and until 2041 in the case of the Limerick tunnel. Total payments could reach €142m. The Department of Transport is seeking legal advice on extending car tax checks to the privately operated GoSafe speed vans, the report reveals. If approved, the vans will scan the number plates of motorists and check the registrations instantly against a national motor taxation database.

Owners of vehicles whose tax is either out of date or declared ‘off-the-road’ will be sent fines in the post by gardai, who control the cameras. The idea is that this will put pressure on these drivers to pay their tax to avoid being caught again by the cameras. However, the move is bound to generate considerable controversy as the privately operated cameras were rolled out at known blackspots for speeding deaths in a bid to reduce deaths. Safety The C&AG warned the move would “impact on the deployment of safety camera vehicles and their original purpose to reduce the number of fatal and serous injury accidents”.

The cameras, which cost €16m a year, were linked to 32 fewer deaths in their first 12 months of operation in 2011 and a saving to the State of €80m in the bill for road fatalities and serious injuries. In the C&AG’s report, motor tax dodgers escaped paying €50m last year — a rate seven times higher than in the UK. A further €50m was lost by false ‘off-the-road’ declarations. However, the Comptroller said he had been told by the accounting officer of An Garda Siochana that 78pc of those who received fixed charge notices subsequently paid their motor tax and this was an effective deterrent. A survey found that one in 14 cars on the M50 motorway around Dublin did not have tax. A total of 800,000 vehicles not registered for car tax in 10 years, although many of these were scrapped cars.”

Treacy Hogan and Paul Melia

Irish Independent