Thomas P. Broughan
Ceist:
97. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of arrests, prosecutions and convictions for driving offences involving heavy goods vehicle, HGV, and public service vehicle, PSV, drivers in each of the years 2015 to 2018 and to date in 2019; the number of dangerous driving offences in each of the years in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4772/19]
Amharc ar fhreagra
The Deputy will appreciate that I, as Minister for Justice and Equality, have no role in relation to the collation of data on driving offences, which is the responsibility of An Garda Síochána.
I have been informed by An Garda Síochána that Garda road traffic statistics are not recorded in a way that allows for the disaggregation of the data in the manner you have requested.
However, to be of assistance, I have requested that An Garda Síochána provide relevant statistics of potential interest and I will forward this report directly to the Deputy on receipt of same.
The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 42A
I refer to parliamentary question No. 97 of 31 January 2019 in which the Deputy asked for the number of arrests, prosecutions and convictions for driving offences involving a HGV and PSV drivers in each of the years 2015 to 2018 and to date in 2019; and the number of dangerous driving offences in each of the years.
The Deputy may recall I had sought information from An Garda Síochána, which is now at hand. As advised in answers to previous parliamentary questions, relating to HGVs and PSVs, the PULSE system does not allow for the automated disaggregation of statistics into vehicle/driver type. Therefore, to produce these figures a manual trawl of PULSE records would be required, which has been deemed a disproportionate use of Garda time. The disaggregation issue also arises in conviction statistics, which are held by the Courts Service, and therefore these statistics have not been provided.
However, An Garda Síochána have provided the tables overleaf, which include detailed statistics on incidents and summons/charges for 'Dangerous Driving', 'Dangerous Driving Causing Death', 'Dangerous Driving Causing Serious Bodily Harm', 'Careless Driving’ and 'Careless Driving Causing Death'. Also included is a table showing the number of Fixed Charge Notices issued for 'Driving without Reasonable Consideration' [contrary to section 51(a) Road Traffic Act 1961].
I hope this data is of assistance to the Deputy and also addresses issues raised in parliamentary questions 346 of 20 September 2017, 570 of 7 November 2017, 120 of 13 December 2017 and 759 of 24 July 2018, which have been outstanding until now.
