Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 4 November 2021
332. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Justice the number of drivers that were not convicted in court in each of the years 2018 to 2020 and to date in 2021, by District Court due to the fact that they claimed in court the non-receipt of a fixed charge notice for the offence of driving while holding a mobile phone; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53722/21]
View answerThe Deputy will be appreciate that the Courts are independent in the exercise of their judicial functions, subject only to the Constitution and the law. and the conduct of any court case is a matter entirely for the presiding judge.
I have made enquiries with the Court Service who have advised that their system does not capture information on the reasons for a non-conviction of a person unless the reason is specified by the judge in their order.
As such, the Court Service system does not hold complete statistical information on the number of persons who were not convicted for the offence of driving while holding a mobile phone by claiming that they did not receive a Fixed Charge Notice for that offence.
Consequently, the statistics as requested by the Deputy cannot be provided.
