THE GOVERNMENT IS committed to rolling out a pilot scheme that will see the installation of cameras to catch drivers breaking red lights, Minister of State Jerry Buttimer has said. 

The pilot programme is to be implemented in Dublin and the cameras will automatically record people breaking red lights.

The plan was announced by former transport minister Eamon Ryan last year. 

“If we don’t change our behaviour, then nothing happens,” Buttimer told RTÉ Prime Time last night. 

“This is about ensuring that we reduce accidents on our roads,” he said. 

A Prime Time investigation found that over the course of just eight hours, more than 60 drivers broke red lights at several junctions in Dublin and Galway.

Asked why the cameras were only being introduced as a pilot scheme, Buttimer replied that he and his colleagues at the Department of Transport “are only just in the department”. 

Professor Pete Lunn, head of the Behavioural Research Unit at the ESRI, told Prime Time that motorists are breaking red lights out of frustration with the levels of traffic.

“People become more likely to take a decision that is essentially queue jumping. It’s essentially selfish, but it also has dangers, and it imposes risks on everyone else,” he said.