Brennan says penalty points will be applied

The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, said he has been assured by the Garda Commissioner and the Minister for Justice that …

The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, said he has been assured by the Garda Commissioner and the Minister for Justice that there would be "no let-up" in enforcement of penalty points.

This is despite a Garda report suggesting up to 2,000 speeding offenders could escape prosecution.

The assurances come ahead of a meeting this morning between Mr Brennan and officials from the Department of Justice and the Garda to discuss a "leaked" Garda report that the points system is on the verge of collapse.

Mr Brennan and the Minister of State for Transport, Mr Jim McDaid, yesterday questioned the motivation of the Garda in holding a "secret" report on the penalty points system and not sharing vital information on the system with their Department.

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The Ministers were referring to the contents of an internal Garda audit of the points system which stated that motorists who refused to pay their speeding fines were likely to escape prosecution and would be "rewarded" for doing so by not incurring penalty points on their licences.

This, the report said, was because the penalties office was not equipped to process the offenders' summonses within the statutory six-month time-frame.

The audit of the system was completed almost seven weeks ago yet the Garda did not inform the Ministers or their Department of the "drastic situation" the manually-operated points system had fallen into.

The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, met the Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, yesterday, and, it is understood, requested that he telephone Mr Brennan to stress the commitment to enforcing penalty points.

Last night, Mr McDowell said he did not think it was fair Mr Brennan should be "ambushed" by the underhand way in which the report was disclosed.

Mr Brennan and Mr McDaid were only made aware of the contents of the audit when it was was broadcast on RTÉ yesterday. Mr Brennan told RTÉ he was surprised the Garda had conducted an audit on the system only two to three months after its introduction and at the speed with which the report became public.

The Garda audit, dated January 22nd, stated that gardaí were not coping with the system which was "nearing collapse" and "will require immediate attention".

The report highlighted a number of problems with the cumbersome manual system used to collate penalty points. It stated that no summonses had been applied for for speeding motorists who had refused to pay their fines since the system went live on October 31st, 2002.

The time-frame for starting the summons process is six months from the date of detection of the offence, after which time no summons can be enforced.

The report also claimed that the computer system which will eventually be used to process points would not be ready for use for almost 18 months.

The Garda authorities yesterday denied they had been deliberately keeping the Minister and the Department of Transport "in the dark". Spokesman Supt John Farrelly said the information in the audit had been dealt with in line with "normal management procedure".

Olivia Kelly

Olivia Kelly

Olivia Kelly is Dublin Editor of The Irish Times