THERE WAS an 85 per cent fall in the number of penalty points issued on November 24th when members of the Garda Representative Association (GRA) carried out industrial action in protest against pay cuts.
The Department of Transport said it was notified of 78 penalty-point offences from that day by An Garda Síochána. On the Tuesday of the preceding week, November 17th, 557 penalty-point notices offences were sent to the department.
Only penalty points where the driver pays the fine are forwarded to the National Vehicle Driver File. Additional penalty-point offences may have been issued on the days in question where the motorist goes to court. The proportion of such cases on both days is expected to be broadly similar.
At the time of the protest the GRA advised its members that the issuing of fixed penalty notices was discretionary and asked them to take cognisance of the non-necessity to issue fixed penalty notices.
Motoring offences penalised by fixed penalty notices include speeding, failure to wear a seatbelt, driving while holding a mobile phone and dangerous overtaking.
A spokesman for the Garda declined to comment on whether issuing penalty points was discretionary. He said adequate policing resources were in place on March 24th to provide a service to the community.
With certain road traffic offences, such as drink driving, a garda has no discretion and must deal with a driver detected over the limit. With others, including a number of offences covered by penalty points, gardaí have a number of options. These include advising the motorist to change their behaviour or issuing penalty points or a summons.
A spokesman for the GRA said he was not aware of disciplinary action being taken against any member following the action last November. GRA members recently stopped using personal mobile phones and other personal equipment for work as part of their industrial action.
Asked if the GRA planned to again advise its members to exercise discretion with regards the issuing of penalty points, he replied: “We are so restricted in what we can do, we are always looking for anywhere where we can have an impact on industrial relations but keep within the law.”
“In most cases the kind of industrial action we can take cannot be measured. How do you measure someone not answering their phone? We are not like the Passport Office: we provide a much wider service to the public than that.”
“You don’t take any action unless you felt it was going to have an effect. And the effect we are looking for is to highlight the unfairness of the way we are being treated.”
Noel Brett, chief executive of the Road Safety Authority (RSA), declined to comment on the action taken by gardaí. “We follow an education and enforcement model to reduce road deaths and the work of the gardaí has been a very significant piece in the reduction of road deaths and injuries nationally over the last four years.”
A penalty-point fine that remains unpaid for 56 days automatically leads to a summons.
It is a criminal offence for a member of the force to withdraw their labour or induce another to withdraw their labour
On conviction the offence carries a penalty of up to five years in jail and a maximum fine of €50,000.
