Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has announced 17 new CCTV systems will be in place in towns and city suburbs across the country by the end of the year. It will bring the number of schemes to 26.
Mr McDowell said he was unhappy at the slow rate of progress with the roll out of the nationwide scheme. The unit within An Garda Síochána responsible had been establishing the schemes one at a time with the installation of a cabling system.
However, it had now been decided to outsource the work and to use wireless technology, which was much quicker to install.
"Luckily, as a result of that we are able to do a huge amount in very short order," Mr McDowell said at the launch of the latest scheme in Tullamore, Co Offaly.
He rejected suggestions that civil liberties groups were unhappy about the intrusive nature of the closed circuit camera systems.
"I think people want CCTV and I don't think they pay much attention to others who say their civil liberties are in some way impaired.
"There's not much civil liberty in being mugged. There's not much civil liberty in having the stock of your shop taken by a group of shoplifters. We have to think in terms of civil rights and civil liberties as applying to everybody, not just a tiny minority."
He said while Tullamore's scheme was already operating, two further systems in the Dublin suburbs of Ballyfermot and Clondalkin would also be in place in the next two months using private installers.
