Traffic cameras will soon catch and fine Irish drivers using mobile phones at the wheel – or on their lap

Traffic cameras will soon spot the use of mobile phones behind the wheel and result in automatic fines, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee said today.

They will also be able to see phones in a driver’s lap, resulting in separate action, she said, having met with the Road Safety Authority 24 hours before.

Her comments came after Transport Minister Eamon Ryan yesterday said cameras would first be rolled out in Dublin and then nationwide in order to catch motorists ignoring red lights and driving in bus lanes.

Ms McEntee was speaking today as she secured Cabinet approval to increase sentences for a number of knife-related crimes.

Defending the increase from five years to seven years, she said: “There is a difference between carrying a knife and carrying with intent.

“The current maximum sentence for serious offences – possession of a knife with intent to unlawfully cause injury, trespassing with a knife, and producing a knife to unlawfully intimidate another person – do not appear to be proportionate when compared with simple possession of a knife, and yet they carry the same maximum sentence of five years.

“That is why we are changing the maximum penalty for these serious knife crime offences to a seven-year maximum sentence.”

The increases were originally proposed in a Bill from Jim O’Callaghan of Fianna Fáil, a former Justice spokesman for that party, who said it had been put into “cold storage” by Government, only to be the subject of a “U-turn” now by Fianna Fáil’s partner in Government.

Minister of State James Browne confirmed that the O’Callahgan Bill was available and could now be speedily adapted for the purpose.

Ms McEntee said: “We are also increasing the penalty for importing and selling knives and such weapons from seven to 10 years.”

She said she had already doubled the maximum sentence for assault causing harm and increased the term for conspiracy to murder to life imprisonment. A number of changes will meanwhile strengthen the use of ASBOs (anti-social behaviour orders).

The minister said 600 gardaí in Dublin, Waterford, and Limerick would have bodycams this summer, with a later nationwide rollout of these “vital pieces of equipment.”

She said she hoped to have a Bill of Facial Recognition Technology introduced by the summer, but gave no timeframe on when it might be passed – except to say that the Green Party was on board with the legislation.

It will be used in “limited and defined circumstances” as a tool to search evidence in the most serious of cases, Ms McEntee said.

She noted that stronger garda powers had resulted in the seizure of 44 quad bikes and 133 scramblers in just over a year since they were bestowed.

Action in this area was a key recommendation on the Anti-Social Behaviour Forum convened by minister of state Browne soon after the Government was formed in 2020.

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