Legal loophole over penalty points ‘to be closed off’

THE Road Safety Authority said yesterday that new legislation should be in place by the summer to close off a loophole allowing drivers to avoid penalty points, even after appearing in court for driving offences.

Since 2003, 18,383 drivers have been convicted of offences that require a mandatory court appearance, yet just 727 of these saw the penalty points applied to their licence.

The offences include reckless driving, not having a valid NCT and driving a dangerous vehicle, yet in many cases the points were not put on the motorist’s licence because there is no legal requirement for court clerks to record the licence numbers and send them to the Road Safety Authority (RSA). Many people attending court simply do not bring their licences with them.

Noel Brett, the chief executive of the Road safety Authority, said three cohorts of drivers were able to evade penalty points: those with no licences, out-of-state drivers and those whose licence details are not captured at court. He said the vast majority of drivers not receiving penalty points were in the last category.

He told Morning Ireland: “The long and the short of it is the judge heard the case, gave that sentence and for those drivers that element of the sentence has not been imposed. That is the point of concern.”

He said mutual recognition of penalty points with other countries and the new Road Traffic Bill would help tackle the problem.

“The Road Traffic Bill 2009 has been published, it is due into the Oireachtas and there are very strong provisions in the legislation to deal with this so as quickly as the Oireachtas can deal with this then it will come into play.”

Transport Minister Noel Dempsey has indicated that the loophole will be closed thanks to planned legislation, but Fine Gael Transport spokesman Fergus O’Dowd said the issue had been raised with the minister two years ago, declaring that the whole system was now in disrepute.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen said yesterday: “The Minister for Transport will deal with that matter.

“There’s a Road Traffic Bill I understand that will improve protections in that area in due course.”