mcdowell regrets legal hitch with speed guns - hand held laser measure

The Minister of Justice stated that it is deeply regrettable that the hand-held laser speed-shooting gun used by garda I was not fully covered by the relevant legislation.
Yesterday, the High Court ruled that the use of firearms did not produce a written or permanent record of the alleged speed and did not meet the requirements set out in 2002 of the Road Traffic Act.
The ruling means thousands of speeding charges could be threatened.
Minister Michael McDowell said he recognized that the legislature did not give them the laws needed to bring guns into force, which was very frustrating for a member of Garda Síochána.
But he said he hoped that the situation would be corrected in the subsequent legislation passed last year that changed the requirements.
Mr. McDowell addressed the announcement of the appointment of three new assistant commissioners of Garda --
Assistant Commissioner Edward Locke, assistant commissioner James Kelly and Assistant Commissioner Martin Callinan.
Assistant director Rock will be fully responsible for the new garda transportation team.
Speaking about the controversy surrounding the laser crash gun, he said what happened and he is now looking forward to putting the policy into practice, which will increase garda's visibility and execution on the road in the country.
He denied that he was facing a difficult struggle trying to get Irish drivers to change their behavior.
Over the next two years, the new Transport Corps will see an increase in the number of Ghadi directly involved in the traffic mission from 500 to 1,200.
McDowell said that the key factor in the newly formed Transportation team is to make the public aware that they will face the challenge of strictly implementing the road safety law.