Gardaí still writing penalty points into ledgers

GARDA clerical officers are still handwriting penalty points details into “Dickensian” ledgers despite official garda statements on Monday that they were now typing them into computers.

And problems with the computer system at the driving test headquarters in Ballina, has led to a backlog of 130,000 driving test applications, Transport Minister Seamus Brennan said yesterday.

The average wait for a driving test is now 23 weeks but Mr Brennan said he was planning a range of measures to deal with the situation, including recruiting retired testers.

Last night Mr Brennan and senior gardaí reiterated that they were committed to the operation of the penalty points system and the computerisation of the system will go ahead.

But a senior officer from Garda Headquarters was yesterday sent to the Dublin Garda Fines Office to start the process of drawing up specifications for the long-awaited integrated computer system.

His appearance came the day after Mr Brennan was publicly embarrassed by the leaking of an internal garda report, criticising the penalty points system in Dublin.

On Monday, a garda spokesman said that since the compilation of the internal report on January 22, gardaí had installed computers in the Fines Office in Capel Street to replace the ledgers.

"We introduced standalone computers to Capel Street. The ledgers are gone. The computers should reduce the backlog," the garda spokesman said.

But the Irish Examiner has learned that no computers have been put in to process penalty points.

Clerks are still writing all entries into big ledgers, measuring a foot-and-a-half by a foot-and-a-half and six inches in depth.

This system is trying to log some 28,000 speeding detections, which have taken place since the points were introduced on 31 October last.

It also emerged yesterday that problems with the 60m Garda Pulse computer system, used to record all reports of crime, adds further delays on top of the buckling penalty points system.

"If you have to summons somebody for failure to pay a fine, a garda has to put an incident into Pulse and extract the summons out of the Pulse system. That can take an hour on a good day. Some days it crashes," a source said.

Following a meeting between Mr Brennan and officials from the Departments of Transport and Justice with Assistant Commissioners Joe Egan and Tony Hickey, Mr Brennan said everyone involved was fully committed to seeing the system become operationally successful albeit on a manual basis for the time being.

Officials from the two departments will now be meeting to discuss the rollout of the penalty points system. The next offence to face a clampdown will most likely be the failure to wear seat belts.