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Road Traffic Offences.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 February 2004

Tuesday, 24 February 2004

Ceisteanna (310, 311)

Joe Higgins

Ceist:

411 Mr. J. Higgins asked the Minister for Transport the reason for the delay between motorists being observed breaking the speed limit and the awarding against them of penalty points; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5990/04]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Joe Higgins

Ceist:

412 Mr. J. Higgins asked the Minister for Transport if his Department will take measures to ensure that motorists are notified within two weeks of the awarding against them of penalty points; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5991/04]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

I propose to take Questions Nos. 411 and 412 together.

The penalty points system, which is provided for in the Road Traffic Act 2002 was introduced with effect from 31 October 2002 for the offence of breaching a speed limit, from 1 June 2003 for insurance offences and from 25 August 2003 for seat belt wearing offences. Penalty points are being applied to the driving licence records of those convicted of such offences, and to those who pay a fixed charge — in the case of speeding and seat belt wearing offences — to the Garda to prevent the instigation of court proceedings.

As regards speeding, penalty points are endorsed on the licence record held in the national driver file upon conviction for a speeding offence, or upon payment of a fixed charge for speeding. In the case of latter offences, the system operates in such a way that the offer of paying a fixed charge is always provided and a person has 56 days within which to pay the charge. The 56 day period comprises an initial 28 day period within which €80 fixed charge can be paid, followed by a further 28 day period within which a fixed charge of €120 can be paid. If a person opts not to pay, the case is taken to court. These periods are built into the system and ensure that every opportunity is afforded to the person to pay the fixed charge and avoid a court hearing.

There is therefore an inevitable and intrinsic time lapse between the issue of the notices, the payment of the fixed charge and the notification of the endorsement of penalty points. The fact that, at present, the processing of notices by the Garda is operated on a manual basis is a further contributory factor to those time lapses. The timing of the issue of fixed charge notices is a matter for the Garda Síochána.

The Road Traffic Act 2002 contains a specific structure that applies directly to the effective application of penalty points on the licence record of an individual. Section 5 of the Act provides that, where penalty points are to be endorsed in a record, a notification of that endorsement must be issued to the licence holder involved. The notice sets out in particular the basis for the endorsement of the points. Section 7 of the Act provides that, save in very limited and quite specific instances, the operative date for penalty points is 28 days from the date of the notice issued under section 5.

The recording of convictions for offences is a matter for the courts service. In addition, the compilation of data relating to payments of fixed charges where the relevant notices are issued by the Garda Síochána is a matter for that force.

Both the Courts Service and the Garda Síochána transfer the appropriate data relating to convictions and payment of fixed charges to the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to facilitate its entry into the national driver file which is the responsibility of that Department. As the processing of data by the Courts Service and the Garda Síochána is operated on a manual basis, the data relating to convictions and payment of fixed charges are received in non-electronic format by a company engaged by my Department to convert such data for transmission electronically to the national driver file. Currently this process takes about five working days from date of receipt of the data from the Courts Service and the Garda Síochána. There are no major delays in my Department in the administration of the penalty point system.

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