Alex Dunne regains lead in Formula 2 drivers' championship
Ireland's Alex Dunne has retaken the Formula 2 drivers' championship after a solid showing at the Spanish Grand Prix by the Rodin Motorsport driver.
The 19-year-old from Co Offaly came second in Saturday's sprint race at Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, earning him nine points which saw him overtake Hitech TGR's Luke Browning in the drivers' standings.
Holding a four-point championship lead heading into Sunday's feature race, Dunne started from fifth on the grid and remained P5 by the chequered flag, earning him a further 11 points from the weekend.
Dunne, who is part of McLaren's driver development programme, now
holds a three-point lead over MP Motorsport's Richard
Verschoor, who finished Sunday's race P3, while race winner Arvid
Lindblad jumped to third on 79 points.
READ MORE
Rodin Motorsport sit fifth in the team standings, currently led by Spanish team Campos Racing.
Dunne has taken two feature race wins so far this season, coming in the second and fourth rounds in Sakhir and Imola respectively.
Eight race weekends remain in the 14-event F2 season, which will finish alongside the F1 championship in Abu Dhabi on the first weekend of December.
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Irish Times
34 minutes ago
- Irish Times
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37 minutes ago
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Do we need more CCTV cameras for safer streets? A politician and a civil liberties campaigner debate
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It also demands commitment to fostering a sense of pride in our localities, supporting people on the margins of our society and ensuring our young people have opportunities, facilities and support to thrive. True community safety comes not from surveillance, but from solidarity and the vindication of our socio-economic rights. Olga Cronin is surveillance and human rights senior policy officer at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties James Geoghegan: Garda presence alone isn't enough. We need more CCTV to help make Dublin safer Only one in three Dubliners say they feel safe in the capital city at night. That is according to a recent survey from Dublin City Council, and it matches what I hear on the ground. The organisation Dublin Town has reported similar findings. It's not hard to understand why. There are parts of the city that feel unsafe, especially after dark. That is a reality we need to face and change. Dubliners want more gardaí on the streets. People don't want vague reassurances, they want visible policing. James Geoghegan TD That work is now under way. This spring, 66 newly qualified gardaí were deployed to the Dublin Metropolitan Region to support high-visibility patrols in key areas like O'Connell Street and Henry Street. This targeted approach, based on community concerns and crime data, is starting to make a difference. But Garda presence alone isn't enough. Gardaí can't be everywhere at once, and we shouldn't expect them to be. We need to support them with the right tools. That is why I believe we need to invest in our CCTV network: more cameras in key areas, better system integration, and quicker access to footage for gardaí investigating crimes. [ The Irish Times view on CCTV in Dublin: Light camera action Opens in new window ] At the moment, there are just 209 Garda-operated CCTV cameras in all of Dublin, or one for every 6,000 people. By comparison, the borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in London has one for every 73 residents. Westminster has one for every 1,000 and is planning to expand that coverage. Gardaí can also access footage from about 400 Dublin City Council cameras and, in some cases, private systems. But the process is too often slow and bureaucratic. Officers shouldn't be left waiting for paperwork while crucial evidence is lost. To be clear, I'm not suggesting we mirror London's scale. But we do need more cameras in areas where crime and antisocial behaviour are common, and we need to make access to footage more efficient. Some raise civil liberties concerns. The Irish Council for Civil Liberties, for example, has pointed out that gardaí accessed thousands of private cameras after the Dublin riots. That's true, but those riots were an extraordinary event. In more routine cases, such as assaults or vandalism, access is much slower, and victims can be left without timely support. A business group I met recently pointed out this inconsistency. Thanks to new legislation, it is now far easier for authorities to access CCTV footage in cases of illegal dumping. Yet when a business is vandalised in the same area, gardaí often face significant delays trying to get the same kind of footage. That doesn't make sense. I've seen this issue close-up. A constituent had his wallet and glasses stolen in a gym. He reported it immediately. But when he followed up with the Garda, he was told it could take up to two weeks to get the footage. By then, it had already been deleted. The case went nowhere. With proper legal safeguards, giving gardaí faster access to video footage does not pose a serious threat to civil liberties. The evidence supports this too. Studies show CCTV can reduce crime by between 13 per cent and 20 per cent. It is not a silver bullet, and it works best when combined with measures like public realm improvements and strong community policing. But it helps. The Government is rightly pursuing a mix of those approaches. But a modern capital city also needs a modern system for gathering and using video evidence. People expect to feel safe in our capital. It's time we made sure that they can. James Geoghegan is a Fine Gael TD for Dublin Bay South
