Law exempting politicians under fire

There were calls for a law exempting politicians from offences to be reviewed following an Irish Examiner investigation into the removal of penalty points from the driving records of TDs.

The survey of 166 TDs found that 127 of them had not sought or had fines wiped from their records, while another 37 failed to reply or refused to answer queries about their driving records.

However, one prominent Fine Gael TD admitted his wife had penalty points added to her licence that he received for speeding, while a Fianna Fáil TD said he could not rule out his office having asked that his speeding fine be cancelled.

The investigation follows recent news that gardaí wiped two penalty points for Independent TD Luke Ming Flanagan after he was caught using his phone behind the wheel.

Labour senator Lorraine Higgins yesterday said a law exempting Oireachtas members from certain offences needed to be urgently reviewed.

“This article of the Constitution effectively puts Oireachtas members outside the confines of the law, and I find it unacceptable that they should be treated as if they are above the law just because they are attending Oireachtas business,” argued the barrister.

Her call comes after Wicklow TD Andrew Doyle yesterday insisted he had tried to have two points assigned to his licence after he was caught speeding while returning home after a late night Oireachtas debate.

The chairman of the Oireachtas agriculture committee said the incident occurred in 2009 and that the confusion arose because the car he was driving was registered in his wife’s name.

He said he filled out a form and nominated himself as the driver but that his wife did not post it back in time.

“I filled in the form, put my licence number in it, I recall distinctly. And I signed it and said to her ‘post that back’ and she just didn’t post it in time,” he told RTÉ.

“We just accepted it, it was two points. You don’t try and interfere with the system. She just took the points and said ‘fair enough’”, he said.

Louth TD Seamus Kirk said that he could not rule out his office having sought to have points cancelled from a speeding offence incurred several years ago. He moved to distance himself from previous comments. He told the Irish Examiner that it was a “matter of lifting the phone or writing and pointing out to” gardaí for points to be cancelled. But he admitted to Newstalk: “It is possible, I didn’t personally do it. My office would have rang the Garda Síochána office dealing with it, pointing out that I was on my way to Leinster House.”

He defended the system of politicians being exempt from offences if they needed to get to Leinster House for an important vote. The former ceann comhairle of the Dáil though also said he was open to the exemption being changed to bring in “an equality of treatment.” Mr Kirk said: “If it satisfies the public appetite in this area, fine let’s get on with it.”

Justice Minister Alan Shatter has said he will release the results of an inquiry ordered into the practice of quashing penalty points.