As the Deputy is aware, the Road Traffic (Amendment) Act 2018, also known as the Clancy Amendment, seeks to penalise car owners who knowingly allow their vehicles to be used by an unaccompanied learner driver. The law allows the owners of these vehicles to be fined and gives Gardaí the power to seize their cars if being driven by unaccompanied drivers.
The following table, furnished to me by the Garda authorities, shows the number of Fixed Charge Notices, issued for Learner Drivers unaccompanied by a qualified driver was as follows:
|
Year
|
FCNs Issued
|
|
2019
|
6145
|
|
Jan - Oct 2020
|
5468
|
It is worth noting, the information contained in the table is based upon operational data from the PULSE and FCPS systems as was available on 4 December 2020 and is liable to change.
The following table, provided to me by the Courts Service, outlines the number of learner drivers unaccompanied by a qualified driver, who were summoned to court for failure to pay, the number convicted and the fines imposed for the period in question.
|
Year
|
No. of Persons summoned to Court
|
No. of Persons convicted
|
No. of Fines imposed
|
Value of Fines imposed
|
|
2019
|
1,496
|
489
|
543
|
€89,449.00
|
|
Jan – Oct 2020
|
887
|
175
|
184
|
€29,865.00
|
Please note that the Courts Service can only provide data in relation to where offence codes provided on the system were used by prosecutors. Prosecutors may have used uncoded free text offences and any such offences would not be included in the data provided.
It is also worth noting that the number of fines imposed is per offence and not persons.
