Bernard J. Durkan
Question:471 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Transport the position in relation to the driving issue concerning a person (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17785/04]
View answerTuesday, 15 June 2004
Questions (418)
Written answers
Where a person is detected exceeding a speed limit, he or she is offered the opportunity to pay a fixed charge. The making of such a payment is in effect a statement by the payee that he or she will not contest the accusation made in the notice, thus ensuring that the matter will not proceed to a hearing before a court.
Following receipt of the payment of a fixed charge in respect of a speeding offence, the licence record of the person is endorsed with two penalty points. Where a person does not pay a fixed charge, thus allowing the matter to proceed to court, on conviction he or she will be required to pay a fine of up to €800 and four penalty points will be endorsed.
There is no basis for a refund of a fixed payment provided for in the Road Traffic Acts. As the payment of the fixed charge is a voluntary acceptance by the person that he or she has offended and is also accepting the consequences of the making of the payment, there can be no question of such a payment being refunded. The principle that a fixed charge payment cannot be refunded is provided for in section 11 of the Road Traffic Act 2002 which provides the legislative basis for the operation of the fixed charge system. The only basis for the removal of penalty points provided for in the Act is where a court accepts a late appeal from a person convicted of a penalty point offence and, following the hearing of the appeal sets aside the original conviction. To date, no driver has had penalty points removed from their driving licence record.