Cameras to detect and prosecute drivers who break red lights will be used for the first time in a decade with their installation at the Merrion Gates level crossing in Dublin in the new year.
The automatic cameras will take pictures of drivers who fail to stop when the flashing red lights are showing at the level crossing. Offenders will receive an €80 fine and two penalty points. Drivers who attempt to speed through the crossing will be fined €160 and given three penalty points.
In 2025 there were 22 collisions with level-crossing gates.
The cameras have been installed at the Merrion Gates level crossing as a safety collaboration between Iarnród Éireann, An Garda Síochána and Dublin City Council and will be operational from January. Cameras will be installed at six more level crossings in the coming months.
However, plans announced almost two years ago for their use on traffic lights at junctions across Dublin city, with a subsequent nationwide roll-out and use in bus lanes, have been stalled.
In 2015 cameras were installed for a six-month trial on traffic lights at the junction of Blackhall Place and the Luas Red line in Dublin’s north inner city, following a number of crashes where vehicles failing to stop at the red light was the main contributory factor.
The initiative was hugely successful, with the number of drivers breaking the light falling by half in the second three months of the trial, and no successful court appeals against fines. However, the trial was discontinued.
The Merrion Gates initiative marks their first use since. This level crossing was selected due to “traffic surveys showing persistent driver behaviour issues”, Iarnród Éireann spokesman Barry Kenny said.
“The key issue at Merrion Gates is proceeding beyond a stop line when red lights are flashing,” he said. “As level crossings represent a new deployment of the Garda Go Safe system, the cameras have been tested extensively in recent months, with activation to take place by the end of January.”
In the coming months, cameras will be deployed at level crossings in Farranfore and Minish in Co Kerry, and Knockcroghery, Co Roscommon, “where speeding is the primary issue”, Mr Kenny said.
“The cameras are easy to relocate and they will be deployed dependent on driver behaviour,” he said. “In Dublin it is intended to move units across the network to automated crossings such as Serpentine, Sutton, Coolmine and Sandymount, where incidents have been recorded.”
In early 2024 Transport Infrastructure Ireland was tasked with developing a national strategy for the introduction of camera-based enforcement. The strategy was submitted to the Department of Transport in mid-2025, but has not been published.