Speed vans, GoSafe and the tolerance myth: how camera detection works and what to do when a notice arrives

"Speed van ireland tolerance" is typed more often than almost any other phrase about speeding, and the question behind it, how far over the limit you can go before a van records you, has no lawful answer. There is no tolerance in the Road Traffic Acts. The offence is exceeding the limit on the sign, and the Garda does not publish the thresholds its cameras and its operators are set to. This guide explains how the vans work, what the law says about the reading, what the 2026 proposal on certificate evidence would change, and what to do when the notice arrives.

It does not explain how to drive past a van unrecorded, because the site does not do that, and because the answer is the limit.

How the vans work

The camera vans on Irish roads are operated by a contractor, GoSafe, under contract to the Garda, alongside the Garda's own vans and handheld devices. The vans are parked within published safety camera zones, which are stretches of road the Garda chose on their collision history. A camera in the van records the speed of passing vehicles with a photograph that shows the registration, the time and the recorded speed. The recording is checked, matched against the vehicle file, and a fixed charge notice is posted to the registered owner.

The zones are published on garda.ie; the times the vans sit in them are not. A zone is a stretch of road where enforcement is more likely, not a warning that it happens only there. Gardaí enforce the limit anywhere.

The van does not stop you and nobody speaks to you. The first you know is the notice.

The tolerance myth

Three different things get called "tolerance", and it helps to separate them.

The law. The Road Traffic Acts, with the speed limit regulations and bye-laws made under them, make it an offence to drive at a speed exceeding the limit that applies. Any excess is the offence. There is no statutory allowance, and a court cannot dismiss a case because the excess was small; what it can do with a small excess is reflect it in the fine.

Equipment accuracy. Every measuring device has a stated accuracy, and the devices used in Ireland are type-approved and calibrated. The recorded speed on a notice is the device's reading; whether an allowance for accuracy is applied before a notice issues is an operational matter and is not published.

Enforcement thresholds. Whether a notice issues for a driver recorded a small amount over is a decision for the Garda. The Garda has not published the thresholds its cameras are set to and this site cannot state them. Figures that circulate online are not sourced from the Garda and should not be relied on. A driver who plans on a margin is planning on something nobody has promised.

The practical rule is the sign. The limit on rural local roads fell to 60 km/h on 7 February 2025 under the Road Traffic Act 2024, and a van on a road whose limit changed is where many 2025 notices came from; the 80 km/h phase for national secondary roads and the 30 km/h urban phase had not been commenced by October 2026, and the changes page records them when they are.

The reading as evidence

If a speeding case goes to court, the evidence is the recorded speed, the photograph and the limit at that point. The Road Traffic Act 2010 provides for the use of camera apparatus and for the recording to be evidence of the speed, and the court treats the output of an approved device as reliable unless there is evidence to the contrary. That is not a technical rule to be worked around; it is the reason a hearing on a camera detection is for a genuine dispute about who was driving, where the car was, or whether the limit shown on the notice was the limit at that spot.

In 2026 the Government approved a package of road safety measures that included certificate evidence from camera-van operators for unpaid fixed charge notices. The idea is that a certificate from the operator would prove the detection in court, without the operator attending to give evidence. It was a proposal, not law, on 15 October 2026; while it remains so, the prosecution proves the detection by the evidence it currently calls. The changes page tracks it.

The numbers

The Garda issued about 169,000 speeding notices in 2025, the great majority from cameras. Most were paid in the first window and never came near a court. Of those that did, the District Court made 50,462 orders in penalty point cases of all kinds in 2025, 18,686 of them fines, and 10,902 people used the third payment option to end a prosecution before the hearing (Courts Service Annual Report 2025).

What to do when the notice arrives

The notice is a fixed charge notice under Part 3 of the Road Traffic Act 2010, posted to the registered owner. It is the same notice whether the detection was by a van, a fixed camera or a garda with a handheld device, and the same three routes apply.

Check who was driving. The notice goes to the registered owner. If someone else was driving, nominate them on the notice within the first 28 days; the notice reissues to them and the points go on their record. Not nominating, and paying for a driver who was not you, puts the points on the wrong licence and is itself an offence.

Check the dates. You have 28 days from the date on the notice to pay €160 with three penalty points, and a further 28 days to pay €240 with the same points. After that a summons issues. The fixed charge notice clock turns the date on the notice into the deadlines. The 28 days run from the date printed on the notice, not the date it arrived.

Check the cancellation grounds. The Garda cancels a notice only on listed grounds: an emergency, a medical reason, a mistaken vehicle, a stolen plate, a statutory exemption. A mistaken vehicle, where the registration on the photograph is not your car, is a real ground; so is a stolen plate. Disagreeing with the speed is not a ground. The Garda's page on cancellation requests sets out how to apply.

Decide the route. Paying in the first window is what most people do: €160, three points, no conviction, no record. Letting it go to a summons and pleading not guilty is for a real dispute. Once a summons has issued, the third payment option lets you pay double the original charge, €320, up to seven days before the court date and end the prosecution with the three fixed-charge points rather than the five a conviction carries.

The whole process, including the scam texts that imitate it, is in the guide to a fixed charge notice, and the court side in the guide to speeding.

The points

Three points from a paid notice are endorsed 28 days after the notice of endorsement and last three years. They go into the same total as every other point offence: twelve within three years is six months off the road, seven for a learner or a novice driver. The penalty points calculator adds them to what you have; the rule is in the guide to penalty points in Ireland.

Where this leaves you

Put the date on the notice into the fixed charge notice clock: it gives you the three deadlines and the points under each route. If the photograph shows someone else's car, the Garda's cancellation page is the route; if it shows yours and you were not driving, the nomination section is.

If the matter goes to court, the guide to appealing penalty points and contesting a notice sets out what a hearing can and cannot do. If you may qualify for legal aid, ask the judge for it at your first appearance; the legal aid page explains the tests, though a speeding summons on its own rarely meets the gravity one. A solicitor can tell you whether the facts on your notice amount to a dispute the court can hear.