As the Deputy is aware, the Courts Service has put in place arrangements to ensure that summonses issued since May 2012 include wording to advise persons charged with an offence under the Road Traffic Acts to bring their driving licence together with a photocopy of the licence when they are attending court. I am informed that the Courts Service has communicated with the judiciary to facilitate an arrangement that defendants who appear before the court are requested in court to produce their driving licence and a copy thereof to the court registrar for the purpose of having the driving licence number recorded. Additionally, Registrars have been requested to record whether or not the licence or a copy thereof was produced to the court. Where the driving licence number is recorded and on conviction the details are provided to the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport.
The Courts Service has reported that there has been an increase in the number of driving licence numbers collected since the initiatives above have been implemented. The table below provides details of driving licence numbers collected in March, April, May and June 2013. For comparative purposes similar data is provided for May, June and July 2012. In both cases the figures do not include mandatory court appearances.
|
Month
|
No of defendants convicted
|
No of driving licence numbers recorded
|
% of driving licence numbers recorded
|
|
Mar 2013
|
971
|
466
|
47.9%
|
|
April 2013
|
1,032
|
433
|
41.9%
|
|
May 2013
|
1,082
|
528
|
48.8%
|
|
June 2013
|
987
|
406
|
41.1%
|
|
Total
|
4,072
|
1,833
|
45%
|
|
Month
|
No of defendants convicted
|
No of driving licence numbers recorded
|
% of driving licence numbers recorded
|
|
May 2012
|
2118
|
548
|
25.8%
|
|
June 2012
|
1861
|
505
|
27.1%
|
|
July 2012
|
1916
|
519
|
27%
|
|
Total
|
5,895
|
1,572
|
26.6%
|
To date there have been no prosecutions for failure to produce driving licences to the Court. However, I am informed that the Courts Service are putting in place arrangements whereby the Garda Siochana will be notified of instances where no licence was produced to the court, including where the person does not appear in court. It will then be a matter for the Gardai to decide to initiate prosecutions in such instances.
