Red tape, over a missing ‘o’ in the name O’Donovan, has led a judge to describe the speeding prosecution system as “totally daft, unreal and unbearable”.

A judge said that if Finance Minister Michael Noonan is offered money in cows and sheep, he should accept it.

A senior garda responsible for processing speeding fines is to appear before a Cork judge to explain why a retired teacher’s attempts to pay a fine had been "frustrated by bureaucracy".