The names of people disqualified from driving may soon be published publically in an attempt to name and shame them and keep barred motorists off the roads, the chief executive of the Road Safety Authority has said.
Moyagh Murdock said the authority had been discussing such an initiative with the Courts Service, the Department of Transport, the Data Protection Commissioner and An Garda Síochána.
Such a measure would apply to motorists disqualifed in court rather than those who accumulate 12 penalty points (or seven points in the case of those on learner permits or novice drivers) over time. The names would be published on the authority’s website.
Figures published in The Irish Times this week show 521 disqualified drivers received convictions for dangerous driving causing serious injury or death in the period between January 2013 and March 2015.
Almost 17,500 drivers were disqualified in court over the same timeframe for a variety of road traffic offences, such as drink-driving or accumulating penalty points, according to the figures from the authority.
Ms Murdock expressed concern that driving while disqualified was a "societal issue" in Ireland.
“It’s a cultural acceptance towards people who we know have been disqualified whether accepted by family, friends, colleagues and really the legislation seems to be ignored,” she told RTÉ Morning Ireland.
Ms Murdock said powers introduced during the summer to arrest disqualified drivers on the spot, rather than to summons them to court as in the past, had helped but “we feel we can take this a step further”.
She said naming and shaming exercises had proven effective for the Revenue Commissioners when it came to tax defaulters, for the National Transport Authority when it came to disqualified taxi drivers and the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement in terms of disqualified directors.
“We are considering now people who have appeared in court and been disqualified from driving,” she said. “It’s already a matter of public record and we are now considering formalising that in a list of disqualified drivers so that peer pressure, community pressure, society will ensure people who have been disqualified do not continue drive and pose a risk to other road users as well as themselves.”
Ms Murdock said she found figures published in The Irish Times this week showing that just 40 per cent of drink-driving cases that come before the district courts are resulting in convictions “very shocking”.
She said it was often the case when someone appears in court that requests were made to put cases back which can make it a “quite a long process to go from detection right through to conviction”.
“I am aware it can be an extremely frustrating process for gardai and prosecutors.”
The conviction rate compares unfavourably with England and Wales, where 97 per cent of drink driving cases brought before magistrates' courts result in conviction.
