MICHAEL MCALEER HELPDESKAnswering all your questions
From T Williams: Last week I received a notice from the municipal police in Florence relating to an alleged traffic offence dating back to June 2007. What it amounts to is a fine of €93 for what they say was an "unauthorised circulation in limited traffic area".
The secured link on their website allows me view what is a postage stamp size image of my hired car showing just the registration number. I believe what I'm being accused of is an illegal U-turn which I dispute. Towards the end of the notice they say that if I fail to pay up they will delegate the charge to the European Municipality Outsourcing and invoke all sorts of International Conventions. What is your experience of European police requesting their counterparts here to follow up on traffic offences? And do our gardaí have the appetite for chasing these down?
You can come out of hiding. According to a Garda spokesman, there is no co-operation between police forces to pursue this level of traffic offence, so gardaí are not seeking to extradite you to Florence. Nor are you liable for any penalty points.
The next step will be that Florence authorities will contact the Italian consulate in Dublin, which will then write to you. You then have 60 days to pay or reply by registered letter stating you are seeking to dispute the fine. If you don't respond then the Florence authorities begin legal proceedings in Italy.
This will only really impact you if you return to Italy. Even then, this is an administrative fine and as such you will not be stopped from entering the country or arrested. You would be advised to contact the consulate in Dublin and attempt to pursue a defence against the fine.
In cases where motorists accept they are in the wrong for traffic fines, while it's very unlikely foreign governments will pursue you to your home state, it may become punitive when you return to those countries.
The fines are on record and if you come to the attention of authorities again you might face a backlog of fines and expenses. It's best to pay these fines in the long run or deal with them at the time.
From Mike Brophy: I refer to your reply to the above question from Paul Carey last week in which you state that "many fully licensed drivers over the age of 55 never sat the test". I must point out that the age impacted by the change in 1964 is over 61 as you had to be 17 to apply for a license.
My brother, who was born in 1946, applied and got a license before the introduction of the new rule, whereas I was born in 1948 so was too young to apply before 1964.
I started driving in the early 1970s and sat and successfully passed my test. My two younger sisters were still on provisional licenses when an amnesty was introduced in 1979 and hence they got licenses without ever passing a driving test. Accordingly I am the only one of my siblings, all of whom have full driving licenses, who sat and passed the driving test.
From Mark Henderson: Further to your piece last week about pre-1963 untested drivers, there is also another cohort of untested drivers on our roads. These are the people (myself included) who benefited from the 1979 amnesty which, I believe, was introduced in an effort to reduce the enormous backlog of people on waiting lists for driving tests. Sound familiar?
Yes, the age of drivers who never had to sit a test is over 61 rather than 55 years.
As to the 1979 amnesty, such a move was not one of the options considered this time and the RSA claim the average waiting time is now 14 weeks and it is on course to reduce this to 10 weeks by the end of June. Even then, they are unlikely to rescind those licences issued without tests being completed.
While the reduction in waiting times is to be commended, a more important issue remains outstanding: bringing the test itself into the 21st century.
From Donncha O'Cróinín, Greystones: The mystery car referred to in last week's column - the WiLL - actually built by Toyota. I've seen one around Greystones in recent times.
Yes, since identifying that it was a "grey" Japanese import I now remember seeing several of them myself, particularly on the streets of Tokyo. They were never officially brought into Ireland by Toyota, so any you see are used Japanese imports.
Accordingly I am the only one of my siblings, all of whom have full driving licenses, who sat and passed the driving test