Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 15 Oct 1996

Vol. 470 No. 1

Written Answers. - Traffic Courts.

Noel Dempsey

Question:

232 Mr. Dempsey asked the Minister for Justice the remit of her Department in relation to the traffic courts; the number and frequency of hours of opening of the traffic courts; the type of offences dealt with by the traffic courts; the type and scale of penalties available to the traffic courts; the costs involved in operating the courts; the number and grades of staff employed in the courts; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18321/96]

Minister for Justice (Mrs. Owen)

The courts are independent in the exercise of their judicial functions and are subject only to the Constitution and the law and the function of my Department is to provide the courts with the resources necessary to carry out their functions.

With the exception of a small number of offences which are triable on indictment, offences under the Road Traffic Acts are dealt with in the District Court.

The times and places of sittings of the District Court, excluding sittings in the Dublin Metropolitan District, are set out in the District Court (Areas) Order 1961 as amended. The distribution of business and sittings at which such business shall be transacted in the Dublin Metropolitan District Court are matters for the President of the District Court and in which I have no function.

I understand that there are currently two courts hearing road traffic cases on a full-time basis in the Four Courts complex and that half the time of another court is also taken up with these cases. In addition, road traffic offences would form part of the court list at sittings of the Dublin Metropolitan District Court in other venues. In the provincial District Court, road traffic offences are listed for hearing in the normal way and are not dealt with separately.

Offences triable and penalties available under the Road Traffic Acts are set out in that legislation and the regulations made thereunder. These Acts and regulations come within the area of the responsibility of my colleague the Minister for the Environment, Deputy Howlin.

Information on the cost of processing road traffic offences and the number and grades of staff who deal with these cases is not readily available and could not be calculated without the expenditure of a disproportionate amount of staff time.