Madam, - I read with interest your report of October 10th on the long-awaited introduction of penalty points for motoring offences, beginning with the misdemeanour of driving at an excessive speed, which attracts two demerits, or four if the case is contested and lost.
Can this be the correct approach? Is it fair? By all means, in the latter case , increase the fine (after all, court officials have to be paid), but, apart from that how can a given offence suddenly double its points value, just because the defendant elects to challenge the finding in court, as is his prerogative?
The answer, of course, is that it can't - in my opinion, the extra two penalty points are added, not for the original transgression, but as a disincentive to exercising one's constitutional rights in a court of law.
This smacks of totalitarianism, and, I feel, would not stand up to a challenge in the European Court of Justice. - Yours, etc.,
D.K. HENDERSON,
Castle Avenue,
Clontarf,
Dublin 3.