Carlow Gardaí collected nearly €300,000 in fines from speed detectors in last two years

Gardaí in Carlow collected €293,040 in fines from Garda speed vans in the 30 month period from January 2023 to June 2025.

Calls have now been made for a tougher approach to those who are caught doing excessive speeds on our rural roads.

MEP for Ireland South Cynthia Ní Mhurchú has called for a greater concentration of speed vans at accident black spots and on our rural roads where speeding is dramatically impacting on road safety.

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Gardaí released figures this week showing that €32,437,002 has been collected in fines across Ireland from Garda speed vans between January 2023, and June 8, 2025.

Figures also show that Gardaí paid out over €44m euro to private speed camera operators between the start of 2023 and up to August 18th, 2025, meaning that the Garda speed van system is operating at an overall loss.

Dublin and Tipperary were two of the highest grossing counties for the Garda speed vans in the period with Cork and Kildare following closely behind. €362,800 was collected in the Kilkenny Garda district whilst €109,600 was collected from speeding motorists in the Thomastown garda district.

Revenue from Garda speed vans in Carlow and Kilkenny fell from €378,320 in 2023 to €327,520 in 2024, a decrease of 13.4%.

The revenue collected from speed vans in the period was considerably lower than surrounding counties such as Tipperary and Cork.

According to Ní Mhurchú, speeding caused the deaths of 52 Irish people in 2024.

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“A European Commission report from 2020 estimated that 10 to 15% of all crashes and 30% of all fatal crashes are the direct result of speeding or inappropriate speed. 174 people died on Irish roads in 2024, which means that 52 of those people died as a direct result of speeding (30%).

“There are 52 families across the country mourning loved ones because we have failed to tackle speeding in any meaningful way.”

Ní Mhurchú  welcomed an extra €9 million in funding for up to 100 new speed cameras to enhance road safety at the end of 2024 but said that continual investment in new technology is needed to catch those who are flouting the law. 

Ní Mhurchú  has also called for smarter positioning of our current stock of speed vans to ensure they are located in areas of highest risk of road fatalities. She has also called for consideration of re-education courses as a judicial sanction for drivers who are repeatedly caught speeding.