Daly hits out over penalty points ‘cover-up’

Independent TD Clare Daly has launched a scathing attack on the Taoiseach, the minister for justice and the Garda commissioner claiming they “covered up” serious abuses in the penalty points system which were exposed yesterday by the Comptroller & Auditor General.

The watchdog’s damning report highlighted “significant weaknesses ” in the operation of the fixed charge notice system, revealing there were 42,700 offences in the years 2011 and 2012 wiped out. The report also found there were “no controls” to restrict gardaí who routinely wiped out points in relation to cases outside their district.

The report also found proper records were not being kept, summonses were not being served and notices were going missing.

Earlier this year, following concerns raised by two garda whistleblowers, Justice Minister Alan Shatter ordered two investigations, one of them overseen by Assistant Garda Commissioner John O’Mahoney, whose report found no evidence of corruption.

The whistleblower had raised concerns over the termination of almost 50,000 penalty points over a four-year period. However, the O’Mahoney internal garda review reported just over 70 incidents that weren’t administered correctly.

Following the report, Mr Shatter criticised the whistleblower, claiming many of the officers allegations were “seriously inaccurate and without foundation”.

With the C&AG report showing one-in-five road traffic offenders avoiding penalties, Clare Daly TD claimed in the Dáil that the minister for justice and the Garda commissioner had not accepted the widespread abuse of the system and “sought consistently to adopt a defensive approach and to cover up what has gone on behind the scenes”.

She told Taoiseach Enda Kenny: “In reality, serious abuses have been covered, and uncovered, but your Government has failed to acknowledge the severity of it.”

Referring to the O’Mahoney report and Mr Shatter’s support of it, she claimed: “Throughout the time the Garda establishment sought to minimise the situation and cover for the commissioner, who said there was no such culture.”

In reply, Mr Kenny said the report of the C&AG highlighted, as did the two Garda reports, there were “deficiencies in the system”. However, he said it was now time for people to renew their acquaintances and he noted the recommendations made by the report had been accepted by the Garda Commissioner and would be “fully implemented”.

Among the C&AG shocking findings were almost 2,900 summonses were terminated in relation to 700 vehicles, suggesting some motorists were getting more than one set of points wiped out.

Yesterday, Mr Shatter admitted to the Irish Examiner that “some of the circumstances in which fixed notice charges were cancelled were somewhat exotic”. However, he said the Garda commissioner had last month issued “new instructions” which he hoped would fully resolve the matter.

Last night, Independent TD Joan Collins said an independent review should be carried out over the whole penalty points system.

“The situation is bordering on the dangerous,” she said, claiming when she raised her concerns with Mr Shatter a few months ago “he was totally dismissive”.