Privatisation of penalty point systems at ‘advanced stage’

THE Government is at an advanced stage in the privatisation of the payment collection and printing systems for penalty points.

The Department of Justice is currently in the process of selecting the company, or companies, to carry out the lucrative contracts.

It’s understood the privatisation plans may have been delayed because of the ongoing problems in fully computerising the penalty points system. The contracts were put out to tender on November 17, 2003.

“It is intended to outsource the collection of payments and the provision of printing facilities in relation to the penalty points system,” said a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice.

“The preparation of contracts is currently underway in respect of both of these areas. Accordingly, it is not possible to provide further details at present.”

She said the collection of payments would involve over-the-counter payment by post and, in due course, payment by telephone and over the internet in respect of non-penalty offences.

Currently, gardaí and civil servants work in the Garda Fines Office in Capel Street, Dublin, processing tens of thousands of penalty points for the Dublin area.

Outside Dublin, individual garda stations send tickets to divisional headquarters, from where they are sent to a private company, SWS Group, in Bandon, Co Cork, which is contracted to the Department of Transport.

The contract with SWS is described as an interim measure, until the new system is up and running.

SWS matches details of offences with individual driver files.

The information is sent to the Department of Environment in Shannon, which issues a letter of notification to the driver.

Transport sources said that with the installation of more speed cameras the scale of the system will expand significantly.

“It’s a massive job to operate the system nationwide. That’s why they don’t want gardaí or civil servants engaged in it. Gardaí don’t need to do it.”

More than 150,000 motorists have been hit with penalty points in the first 18 months of the operation up until the end of last June.

However, the system has been hampered by problems since October 2002. Earlier this month, a Dublin motorist incurred 12 penalty points (and was effectively disqualified) before she received her first notice.

This has led to concerns that hundreds of motorists could be driving around with penalty points and not know it.

The computerised system was supposed to be up and running by the summer of this year, but is not now expected to be in operation until the end of the year.