Road Traffic Offences

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 10 February 2021

Wednesday, 10 February 2021

Questions (640)

Catherine Murphy

Question:

640. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Justice the number of disqualified learner drivers who failed to surrender their learner permit in 2018 and 2019 and were summoned to court for the offence; the number convicted each year for this offence; the penalties imposed each year; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7029/21]

Written answers

Minister for Justice

I have requested information from the Courts Service and am making further enquiries in relation to this matter. I will write to the Deputy directly with the information requested when it is available.

The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 51

uested from the Courts Service and undertook to contact you again once the information was to hand. Due to an oversight in my Department, your questions went unanswered and I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to you for the delay in responding to your queries. As you are aware, under the provisions of the Courts Service Act 1998, the management of the courts is the responsibility of the Courts Service, which is independent in exercising its functions. This includes the provision of information on the courts system.

However, in order to be of assistance, I have made appropriate enquiries and the Courts Service have provided a report on the number of drivers that failed to surrender their licence and were before the courts for that offence; the number of those drivers that were convicted of the offence; and the penalties imposed in respect of those convictions for the years 2018 up to and including 2021.

Year	No of Drivers Before the court	No of Drivers Convicted	No of Fines imposed	No of Disqualifications imposed
2018	32	14	14	1
2019	22	9	9	1
2020	10	0	0	0
2021	15	1	1	0

I am advised by the Courts Service that they cannot provide a breakdown by licence type (full licence vs learners permit) as they do not have specific offences to distinguish between the two.

I am further advised that the above figures are based on the following offence codes: Fail to Produce Driving Licence to Court Registrar/Clerk, and Disqualified Driver; Failing to Submit Licence (RTA 2010).

I am informed that the figures include Summonses and Charge Sheets. I am further informed that the figures also include summonses that were not served but listed for court.

As you may be aware, 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.