The purpose of this amendment, as Deputy O'Higgins explained last night, is to provide that where a disqualification order is imposed on conviction in the district court, if the convicted party appeals, the disqualification will be suspended or put in abeyance pending the appeal.
As things stand at the moment, there is not a little doubt as to whether a district justice, on convicting and imposing disqualification, can in fact suspend disqualification pending the hearing of an appeal in the circuit court. There are some justices who refuse so to suspend and, indeed, my own opinion for what it is worth is that they are right in refusing because the law does not permit them to convict and to suspend the suspension of a driving licence pending the hearing of an appeal.
What Deputy O'Higgins is seeking to bring about by this amendment is that a district justice will be allowed to leave a disqualification order in abeyance, pending an appeal in the circuit court, unless the district justice is satisfied that if he were to allow the convicted person to continue driving, he would be a danger to himself and to others.
We believe that the amendment is necessary because there have been cases where, on appeal to the circuit court, the district court conviction has been upset. There have been cases where the circuit court has held that the man was not guilty of dangerous driving or drunken driving or some other offence under the Act. Because of the state of the law as it stands at the moment, there have been and there will be in future, unless the amendment is accepted, cases where people are declared by the circuit court to be innocent of the charge, but who nevertheless have had to suffer a period of three months' disqualification between the time of conviction and the hearing of the appeal. It is obviously wrong to impose a penalty on a man in relation to an offence of which he was never properly convicted. If he appeals his first conviction and is successful he should never have to suffer the penalty of disqualification. I urge the Minister to accept the amendment in the spirit in which it is offered, as an amendment to prevent further injustice.