The Deputy will appreciate that road traffic legislation falls within the remit of my colleague, the Minister for Transport.
I am informed by An Garda Síochána that section 38 of the Road Traffic Act 1961, as amended by section 12 of the Road Traffic Act 2006, creates the offence of ‘Driving without a Driving Licence’. The penalty for this offence is, upon summary conviction, a fine not exceeding €1,000, and in any other case, a fine not exceeding €2,000.
I am further informed that section 38 (5) of the Road Traffic Act 1961, as amended by Section 12 of the Road Traffic Act 2006, provides an increased penalty in respect of a person who is summarily convicted of the offence of Driving without a Driving Licence and was, at the time he or she committed the offence, disqualified for holding a driving licence, namely a fine not exceeding €5,000, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or both.
The following table, provided by An Garda Síochána, shows the number of proceedings taken in relation to driving without a driving licence 2018-2020. 2020 figures are for the period from January – July 2020.
Year
|
2018
|
2019
|
2020 (Jan – July)
|
Driving without a Driving licence
|
22,527
|
20,557
|
10,515
|
* All figures provided are provisional, operational and subject to change.
Please note that we have been advised by An Garda Síochána that these statistics are not compiled in such a way as to identify specific number of arrests for driving while disqualified under section 6(b) and (c) of the Road Traffic Act, as this would necessitate an extensive manual trawl of all relevant incidents recorded on PULSE to collate same, which would require a disproportionate expenditure of Garda time and resources.
Further to the statistics provided by An Garda Síochána, the Courts Service have provided the below tables. Please note that the Court Service have advised that they can only provide data in relation to where offence codes provided on the system were used by prosecutors. Prosecutors may have used uncoded free text offences and any such offences would not be included in the data provided.
Number of drivers before the courts by way of summons or charge sheet for driving without a licence for 2018, 2019 and Jan – July 2020:
Year
|
No of Persons before the Courts
|
Jan – Dec 2018
|
16,851
|
Jan – Dec 2019
|
17,726
|
Jan – July 2020
|
7,531
|
Report on the number of orders & number of persons per order for the years 2018; 2019 & Jan – July 2020
|
Jan – Dec 2018
|
Jan-Dec 2018
|
Jan – Dec 2019
|
Jan-Dec 2019
|
Jan – 31 July 2020
|
Jan-31 July 2020
|
Court Orders
|
No of Orders
|
No of Persons
|
No of Orders
|
No of Persons
|
No of Orders
|
No of Persons
|
Community Service Order
|
66
|
64
|
76
|
68
|
21
|
19
|
Dismiss
|
184
|
176
|
253
|
242
|
122
|
120
|
Dismiss Probation Act
|
44
|
44
|
53
|
52
|
9
|
9
|
Disqualification
|
480
|
411
|
535
|
445
|
216
|
176
|
Fine
|
3,440
|
3,166
|
3,428
|
3,100
|
1,094
|
1,016
|
Imprisonment
|
234
|
171
|
312
|
244
|
123
|
86
|
Imprisonment - Part Suspended
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
Imprisonment - Suspended
|
180
|
177
|
194
|
187
|
63
|
56
|
No Order
|
89
|
83
|
115
|
95
|
41
|
39
|
Other
|
3
|
3
|
12
|
6
|
2
|
2
|
Peace Bond
|
3
|
3
|
2
|
2
|
3
|
3
|
Poor Box
|
6
|
6
|
11
|
11
|
3
|
3
|
Probation Order
|
52
|
34
|
45
|
37
|
8
|
8
|
Sent forward for Trial
|
|
|
3
|
3
|
1
|
1
|
Strike Out
|
6,813
|
6,386
|
6,449
|
6,041
|
2,122
|
2,032
|
Strike Out - Not Served
|
4,680
|
3,865
|
4,986
|
4,184
|
2,728
|
2,485
|
Taken Into Consideration
|
3,623
|
2,826
|
3,903
|
2,990
|
1,451
|
1,144
|
Withdrawn
|
1,621
|
1,545
|
2,365
|
2,265
|
924
|
897
|
Total
|
21,519
|
18,961
|
22,743
|
19,973
|
8,932
|
8,097
|
Please note that a person may have received more than one order and will appear on the above report twice and an offence may have more than one penalty imposed and as such will also appear twice on the report.
Section 38(5) of the Road Traffic Act 1961 only provides for summary conviction of the offences mentioned by the Deputy.