A motorist’s prosecution for holding a mobile phone while driving is set to go to the High Court after his attempt to pay his fine prior to receiving a court summons was rejected because he did not sign his middle name when replying to the notice.

A judge has criticised the process used by gardaí to issue speeding fines as "bureaucracy gone mad" and said that district courts have unfairly been targeted for criticism by a government minister for "systemic failures".

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".