FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE IRISH MAIL ON SUNDAY ON 28/11/2010
Michael O’Farrell
Investigative Correspondent
He is the multimillionaire profiting from the Government’s new €65m anti-speeding initiative – but the high-flying Fianna Fáil supporter has shown little regard for road safety laws.
Xavier McAuliffe, the man behind the new network of mobile cameras, has been clocked speeding twice in three days by an Irish Mail on Sunday investigation.
The camera tycoon is the main mover behind the GoSafe consortium, which is being given taxpayers’ money to run an army of speed camera vans that have already snapped other speeding motorists across the State.
While the company is being paid over €35,000 a day to encourage motorists to slow down, it took an MoS investigation, using our own internationally approved police radar gun, to catch the 65-year-old.
He was snapped travelling at 81kph in a 60kph zone on Tuesday of last week; and 140kph in his powerful 4×4 the following Friday.
The controversial tycoon, who was a supporter of Bertie Ahern and then denounced the former Taoiseach for having ‘no balls’, declined to comment this weeekend on the MoS investigation.
Mr McAuliffe’s assistant argued that the businessman could not answer questions about his own speeding because he is not a spokesman for the GoSafe consortium – and therefore could not comment on road safety.
Nevertheless, it was Mr McAuliffe who personally signed the €65m contract with two senior Fianna Fáil ministers – Justice Minister Dermot Ahern and Transport Minister Noel Dempsey – as well as Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy.
The GoSafe web page says that Mr McAuliffe’s company, Spectra, the main backer of GoSafe, is ‘dedicated towards providing services in road safety’.
It adds: ‘Spectra’s solutions are designed to enable governments and agencies to influence driver behaviour and deliver safer roads and an efficient transport network.’
Since the vans were rolled out two weeks ago, motorists have been snapped across the State: some have already been sent penalty notices.
Some drivers complain bitterly about the speeding strategy. Indeed, one GoSafe van was completely destroyed in an arson attack as it snapped drivers on the Dundalk to Carrickmacross road at around 5am on Friday.
However campaigners point out that speeding is the biggest cause of road deaths, and that many lives can be saved if motorists slow down.
Failing to heed this advice, however, Mr McAuliffe was first caught speeding on Tuesday, November 16, when he returned to his home within the grounds of his Co. Kilkenny hotel, Lyrath Estate, driving a grey 2007 Volkswagen Touareg, at about 2.30pm.
He was driving at 81kph on the road – even though it is clearly marked as a 60kph zone.
He had just passed a sign reading: ‘Speeding? Up to 4 Penalty Points. Get the Point, not the Points.’
As our picture clearly shows, at the moment the reading was taken, Mr McAuliffe’s car was on its own on the road and gave a clear reading.
The incident was also filmed on high-definition video.
To ensure that this instance of the Kerry-born tycoon’s speeding wasn’t an isolated incident, the MoS again monitored his driving three days later, on Friday November 18.
At 1.30pm Mr McAuliffe drove out through the gates of his Lyrath Estate and immediately accelerated to speeds in excess of the 100kph limit.
He was later recorded travelling at 143kph in a 120kph zone.
Mr McAuliffe, who had an unidentified passenger in the front seat, was again recorded on high-definition video and photographed at the wheel of the vehicle as he sped towards Dublin.
The state-of-the-art radar gun used by the MoS to record Mr McAuliffe is certified and independently tested.
It is supplied by Decatur Electronics, a principal supplier of such equipment to police forces across the world.
The equipment has previously exposed speeding by the Garda driver of Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s state car and Bus Éireann coaches.
In addition to an automatic test the gun carries out on all its electronic components each time the radar is switched on, the MoS manually tested the radar with certified tuning forks supplied by the manufacturer.
Furthermore the equipment was tested against the speedometer of an MoS vehicle.
All our evidence is available to the authorities to pursue should they wish to do so.
Mr McAuliffe’s spokeswoman told the MoS: ‘He won’t actually be entering into conversation on GoSafe so I can make life easy for you there.’
When it was explained that it was a matter of Mr McAuliffe’s personal speeding, she said she would consult her boss.
She then said: ‘I’ve just been speaking with him and just to come back to you, just to make you aware, his position is not CEO of GoSafe. He’s not CEO. He doesn’t have a title in it and he’s not the spokesperson in relation to anything to do with GoSafe.’
She said: ‘The Garda SÃochána are the only spokespersons who are in a position to speak in relation to anything to do with GoSafe. In relation to your accusation on him speeding, if you can quantify that, if you can stand by that and you wish to publish that then that’s your choice.’
When told that the MoS simply wished to give Mr McAuliffe an opportunity to respond to the evidence, she said: ‘He’s not in a position to. The only people who can speak publicly on GoSafe is an Garda SÃochána.’
Mr McAuliffe began his career as a photographer in Butlin’s, in his words: ‘doing pictures of events like the Glamorous Gran’.
The separated father of two founded his hugely successful Spectra Group in 1968.
With assets estimated to total €37m earlier this year, he has several other business interests, including a food processing company and property portfolios here and in South Africa.
Once a keen pilot, Mr McAuliffe was banned from flying helicopters for seven years after an accident in Co. Kerry in 1992 that killed his young female passenger, 22-year-old Siobhán Casey.
In 1999, the Moriarty Tribunal heard he had invested £52,500 in Celtic Helicopters, a company run by former taoiseach Charles Haughey’s son Ciarán.
He was famously the subject of reality TV show Five Star in 2006, which charted the opening of his exclusive Lyrath Estate Hotel.
Opening night was a disaster, with the then taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, snubbing the event after it emerged the hotel wasn’t in compliance with planning laws.
Mr McAuliffe accused Bertie of having ‘no balls’, but later said sorry.
In September 2008, the MoS revealed the Government’s own speeding habits when Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s Garda driver was clocked at 106kph in an 80kph zone.
By law the cars of senior ministers are exempt from speeding regulations.
The Road Safety Authority says speed is the main factor in 54 per cent of single vehicle crashes.
