Road Traffic Offences

Wednesday, 10 February 2021

Questions (642)

Catherine Murphy

Question:

642. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Justice further to Parliamentary Question No. 501 of 8 December 2020, the number of drivers summoned to court for driving without a licence, per district court in 2018, 2019 and up to 31 July 2020; the number convicted per district court in each year; and the fines imposed per district court in each year. [7031/21]

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Written answers

Minister for Justice

I am informed by An Garda Síochána that section 38 of the Road Traffic Act 1961, as amended by section 12 of the Road Traffic Act 2006, creates the offence of ‘Driving without a Driving Licence’. The penalty for this offence is, upon summary conviction, a fine not exceeding €1,000, and in any other case, a fine not exceeding €2,000.

I am further informed that section 38 (5) of the Road Traffic Act 1961, as amended by Section 12 of the Road Traffic Act 2006, provides an increased penalty in respect of a person who is summarily convicted of the offence of Driving without a Driving Licence and was, at the time he or she committed the offence, disqualified for holding a driving licence, namely a fine not exceeding €5,000, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or both.

The following table, provided by the Courts Service, shows the number of drivers summoned to court for driving without a licence, per district court, for 2018 and 2019. 2020 figures are for the period from January – July 2020.

Please note that the Courts 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.

Jan – Dec 2018

Court Area	No. of Persons before the court	No. of Persons convicted	No. of Persons where fines were imposed
ACAILL	1
ARKLOW	88	15	15
ATHLONE	141	35	22
BALLINASLOE	94	17	17
BANTRY	37	13	9
BRAY	279	39	37
CAVAN	229	11	8
DUBLIN METROPOLITAN DISTRICT	5,383	1,079	1,033
ENNIS	369	103	103
FERMOY	152	19	12
KENMARE	21	9	9
KILKENNY	235	89	84
KILLARNEY	104	38	34
LIMERICK	961	275	273
MACROOM	103	36	28
MANORHAMILTON	13	6	4
MEATH	652	81	75
MONAGHAN	91	4	4
NEWCASTLE WEST	203	54	54
ROSCOMMON	82	16	14
WEXFORD	280	66	52
YOUGHAL	43	11	8
ARDEE	56	3	3
ATHY	80	25	22
BALLINA	61	15	15
BANDON	95	34	23
BEAL AN MHUIRTHEAD	8	1	1
BALLAGHADERREEN	21	4	2
BALLYSHANNON	33	3	2
BUNCRANA	62	4	2
CAHIRCIVEEN	15	2	2
CARLOW	218	55	52
CASHEL	133	20	17
CASTLEBAR	114	21	20
CLIFDEN	16	4	4
CLONMEL	99	24	15
CLONAKILTY	51	16	13
CORK CITY	943	337	273
CARRICK ON SHANNON	73	9	8
CARRICKMACROSS	115	4	4
CARNDONAGH	26	4	3
CARRICK ON SUIR	39	13	9
CASTLEREA	23	7	7
AN DAINGEAN	5	4	4
DUNGARVAN	83	12	11
DONEGAL	21	6	2
DROGHEDA	223	15	13
DOIRE AN FHEICH	24	7	4
DUNDALK	220	16	14
AN CLOCHAN LIATH	23	3	2
AN FAL CARRACH	18	1
GALWAY	410	114	71
NA GLEANNTA	12	6	2
GORT	57	13	12
GOREY	227	42	32
KILLALOE	39	10	9
KILCOCK	112	30	28
KILLORGLIN	7	1	1
KILRUSH	58	17	17
LETTERKENNY	215	50	23
LISMORE	17	4	4
LISTOWEL	84	30	27
LONGFORD	207	47	39
LOUGHREA	85	21	19
MALLOW	243	36	23
MIDLETON	182	27	11
MULLINGAR	219	43	33
NAAS	536	83	80
NENAGH	158	11	11
PORTLAOISE	535	91	88
SKIBBEREEN	19	4	3
SLIGO	128	14	11
STROKESTOWN	21	5	3
THURLES	137	21	19
TIPPERARY	76	10	9
TRALEE	191	54	41
TUAM	112	30	26
TUBBERCURRY	48	6	5
TULLAMORE	307	68	65
VIRGINIA	167	14	14
WICKLOW	141	23	23
WESTPORT	13	5	5
WATERFORD CITY	390	18	16
Total	17,612	3,633	3,212

Jan – Dec 2019

Court Area	No. of Persons before the court	No. of Persons convicted	No. of Persons where fines were imposed
ACAILL	4	4	4
ARKLOW	87	15	15
ATHLONE	130	29	25
BALLINASLOE	104	23	13
BANTRY	43	6	3
BRAY	264	44	43
CAVAN	200	4	4
DUBLIN METROPOLITAN DISTRICT	5,819	1,138	1,068
ENNIS	296	39	37
FERMOY	156	28	18
KENMARE	9	3	3
KILKENNY	263	68	55
KILLARNEY	77	29	16
LIMERICK	940	284	280
MACROOM	94	15	5
MANORHAMILTON	15	1	1
MEATH	580	98	94
MONAGHAN	104	7	4
NEWCASTLE WEST	226	62	61
ROSCOMMON	75	15	11
TRIM	1
WEXFORD	328	46	43
YOUGHAL	42	15	6
ARDEE	84	8	7
ATHY	88	17	13
BALLINA	54	11	11
BANDON	81	28	13
BEAL AN MHUIRTHEAD	9	2	2
BALLAGHADERREEN	27	8	5
BALLINAMORE	1
BALLYSHANNON	44	4	4
BUNCRANA	34	2	1
CAHIRCIVEEN	14	4	3
CARLOW	189	57	49
CASHEL	179	36	27
CASTLEBAR	166	41	40
CLIFDEN	13	2	1
CLONMEL	103	25	16
CLONAKILTY	48	14	5
CORK CITY	1,038	401	327
CARRICK ON SHANNON	96	11	10
CARRICKMACROSS	129	4	4
CARNDONAGH	34	1
CARRICK ON SUIR	35	8	6
CASTLEREA	32	10	10
AN DAINGEAN	20	4	4
DUNGARVAN	81	9	4
DONEGAL	19	1	1
DROGHEDA	295	27	25
DOIRE AN FHEICH	24	9	7
DUNDALK	300	29	27
AN CLOCHAN LIATH	24	2	1
EDENDERRY	1
AN FAL CARRACH	8	3
GALWAY	288	77	53
NA GLEANNTA	6	1
GORT	74	28	28
GOREY	286	29	27
KILLALOE	33	7	7
KILCOCK	96	14	12
KILLORGLIN	8	3	3
KILRUSH	36	5	4
LETTERKENNY	185	24	9
LISMORE	22	4
LISTOWEL	57	11	9
LONGFORD	261	57	51
LOUGHREA	111	27	25
MALLOW	233	45	14
MIDLETON	212	38	16
MULLINGAR	217	39	28
NAAS	785	124	112
NENAGH	146	15	15
PORTLAOISE	510	85	82
SKIBBEREEN	12	4	2
SLIGO	139	11	11
STROKESTOWN	24	4	3
THURLES	139	13	12
TIPPERARY	88	8	8
TRALEE	218	65	52
TUAM	99	23	13
TUBBERCURRY	39	3	3
TULLAMORE	328	53	49
VIRGINIA	143	5	5
WICKLOW	148	16	16
WESTPORT	17	5	5
WATERFORD CITY	477	26	23
Total	18,564	3,620	3,129

Jan – 31 July 2020

Court Area	No. of Persons before the court	No. of Persons convicted	No. of Persons where fines were imposed
ACAILL	1
ARKLOW	49	8	8
ATHLONE	76	8	8
BALLINASLOE	49	20	17
BANTRY	16
BRAY	119	12	12
CAVAN	77	3	1
DUBLIN METROPOLITAN DISTRICT	1,919	233	211
ENNIS	165	32	32
FERMOY	53	1	1
KENMARE	3
KILKENNY	123	26	25
KILLARNEY	32	10	5
LIMERICK	489	116	116
MACROOM	33	3	2
MANORHAMILTON	4
MEATH	253	35	34
MONAGHAN	28
NEWCASTLE WEST	93	26	26
ROSCOMMON	47	14	14
WEXFORD	171	15	10
YOUGHAL	14	3	1
ARDEE	26	1	1
ATHY	38	2	2
BALLINA	29	2	2
BANDON	28	4	1
BEAL AN MHUIRTHEAD	1
BALLAGHADERREEN	9	1	1
BALLYSHANNON	13
BUNCRANA	21	1
CAHIRCIVEEN	9	1
CARLOW	128	26	25
CASHEL	103	15	15
CASTLEBAR	76	23	23
CLIFDEN	11	3	3
CLONMEL	60	12	4
CLONAKILTY	20	2	1
CORK CITY	518	179	146
CARRICK ON SHANNON	20	1	1
CARRICKMACROSS	75
CARNDONAGH	20	2	2
CARRICK ON SUIR	22	5	4
CASTLEREA	16	4	3
AN DAINGEAN	6	2	2
DUNGARVAN	35	1	1
DONEGAL	10
DROGHEDA	93	5	5
DOIRE AN FHEICH	21	8	6
DUNDALK	93	7	6
AN CLOCHAN LIATH	7	2	2
AN FAL CARRACH	4		19
GALWAY	132	30
NA GLEANNTA	6	1
GORT	46	9	9
GOREY	122	12	11
KILLALOE	8	2	2
KILLORGLIN	3
KILRUSH	10	4	4
LETTERKENNY	121	14	5
LISMORE	5
LISTOWEL	36	6	4
LONGFORD	137	34	28
LOUGHREA	61	21	16
MALLOW	79	7	7
MIDLETON	80	7	3
MULLINGAR	89	14	11
NAAS	372	29	22
NENAGH	76	4	4
PORTLAOISE	225	30	29
SKIBBEREEN	9	4
SLIGO	69	3	3
STROKESTOWN	5	3	3
THURLES	55	3	3
TIPPERARY	37	1	1
TRALEE	113	29	15
TUAM	48	18	14
TUBBERCURRY	26
TULLAMORE	135	11	10
VIRGINIA	34	3	3
WICKLOW	85	8	8
WATERFORD CITY	201	6	5
Total	7,751	1,187	1,018