The Minister for Justice, Brian Lenihan, has given the clearest indication yet that installation of private sector speed cameras has been abandoned.

He said the speed camera tender had indicated "substantially higher" costs than "had been previously estimated for the Government". The Garda estimated the costs in March 2007 at €25 million annually. However, based on the specification of the Working Group on Speed Cameras, published in 2005, the industry said the cost would be closer to €50 million - still within the €70 million a year in revenue the working group estimated the speed cameras would raise.