Noel Ahern
Question:78 Mr. N. Ahern asked the Minister for Justice if she will introduce legislation to allow traffic cases to be transferred to a court convenient to the individual summoned to court.
Written Answers. - Transfer of Traffic Offence Cases.
Procedural matters relating to the jurisdiction of the District Court are governed by rules of court made by the District Court Rules Committee, with the concurrence of the Minister for Justice. The District Court Rules, 1948, set out the present procedures in relation to the exercise of the summary jurisdiction of the District Court, which includes most traffic cases.
In the case of traffic offences, it would not be practical to have such cases heard in the court area wherein the accused resides as this would involve the prosecuting garda having to attend District Courts throughout the State. As such, this would be an uneconomic and inefficient use of Garda resources and serve only to increase the amount of time spent by gardaí in court.