States agree transfer of driving penalties

PENALTY points for road offences will be transferred between the Republic, the North and Britain under a system expected to be in place within five years.

Transport ministers agreed to share information about disqualified drivers between the three jurisdictions and said the three penalty point systems will be aligned by 2013.

Transport Minister Noel Dempsey said he would be willing to make changes to the Irish penalty point system so there would be no legal difficulties in applying points to a license issued here for an offence occurring across the border.

Mr Dempsey met with the North’s Environment Minister, Sammy Wilson and British Road Safety Minister Jim Fitzpatrick.

“We agreed that it was desirable that we’d have mutual recognition of penalty points. We agreed all three of us would work together with an aim of achieving mutual recognition... by 2013,” he said.

After yesterday’s meeting at Parliament Buildings in Stormont, Mr Dempsey said the deal sends a very clear signal to drivers “that they just can’t get away with the behaviour they’ve been getting away with for so long.”

He added: “When a driver from the Republic of Ireland drives over the border they seem to think they have complete freedom and vice versa and that’s something that we cannot tolerate and that’s why we are moving in this direction.”