Worst road offenders ‘escaping sanctions’

A former head of the Garda Traffic Bureau, whose review of the penalty points system six years ago was "shelved", has said the worst driving offenders are escaping sanction.

Former Garda chief superintendent John O’Brien said the controversy around fixed-charge penalties in the last year would not have happened if his report had been examined properly.

The report, commissioned by the Garda ombudsman in 2008, was forwarded to the then justice minister but was ignored and is “still gathering dust”, Mr O’Brien told TDs.

Addressing the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), he said the worst offending motorists could escape fines by just ignoring the system and Garda letters.

Only 14% of driving cases brought to court by gardaí ended in prosecution, his report found. “The system is leaking badly because the worst offenders can easily escape capture,” he said.

Mr O’Brien had recommended to the Garda ombudsman that the penalty points system be reformed, further resourced, and rules set out for how gardaí use discretion in cases.

The PAC also heard that four-year-old legislation to address difficulties imposing penalty points on drivers using company cars had still not been implemented.

This was blamed on a lack of resources for IT systems.

Gardaí had so far failed to implement the legislation, Department of Transport secretary general Tom O’Mahony said, adding that this would be resolved.

He also outlined how there had been a clampdown on motor tax evasion following the recent closing of a loophole around declaring a vehicle off-road.

This measure had resulted in the saving of €50m, Mr O’Mahoney told TDs, and led to another 130,000 drivers paying tax.

He did admit that some drivers were still avoiding getting penalty points by not bringing their driver licence to court.

Meanwhile, the PAC is to drive ahead with measures to compel charity bosses to attend hearings after its attempts had been slapped down by a high-level Oireachtas group.

It yesterday agreed to seek talks with the Committee on Procedures and Privileges (CPP) on the issue or otherwise resort to getting senior lawyers involved.

PAC chair John McGuinness agreed with TDs who warned that discussions between the committees was the best option rather than rushing into a “protracted legalistic nightmare”.

His committee was recently told by the CPP, an overarching Oireachtas committee, that it did not have the powers to compel former Rehab bosses Frank Flannery and Angela Kerins to attend hearings.