Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 1 July 2014
385. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of offenders’ driving licences from which details were recorded by the Courts Service in cases involving road traffic offences and sent to the NVDF in the years 2013 and to date in 2014; and the number of times the Courts Service recorded incidents of offenders not producing their driver licences in court in those years. [27944/14]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Deputy is aware the primary purpose of section 63 of the Road Traffic Act 2010 is to ensure that the driving licence number of individual offenders is recorded to enable the application of appropriate penalty points to the licence on conviction by the court.
As indicated in my response to Question 324 of 6 May 2014 where an accused is brought before a Court in relation to a penalty point offence, the driving licence number is collected by two methods. The first is where the details are provided by An Garda Síochána prior to submission of an application for a summons in respect of the offence. Where the driving licence number is so collected, the driving licence number is sent electronically to the Courts Service with the summons application and the licence number is updated to the Courts Service computer system. Under the second method, the details are collected by the Court Registrar where a licence is produced to the Court at the hearing of the offence.
As outlined above, if the licence is produced, the Court Registrar records the licence number and the number is updated to the Courts Service computer system. If the accused is convicted of the offence, the details of the conviction and the associated driving licence number are subsequently sent electronically to the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport for the application of penalty points.
The Courts Service has indicated that it is not possible to differentiate between the two methods above to provide statistical data in relation to the number of driving licence numbers actually collected within a Court.
I am informed that where an accused is summonsed to appear before a court in respect of a penalty point offence and is convicted of the offence, if a driving licence is not produced to the Court, the Court Registrar records on the Court Minute Book or on the summons that no driving licence was produced. The non-production of the driving licence is recorded whether or not the accused appears before the Court. The Courts Service computer system does not currently support the updating of data in relation to the non-production of driving licences in Court. Last week, along with the Minister for Transport Tourism and Sport, I met with PARC an advocacy group for road safety. At the meeting I agreed to raise the issue of the presentation of licences with the Courts Service.
