Road Safety Authority set to name and shame banned drivers next year

A plan by road safety chiefs plans to name and shame disqualified drivers is set to begin early next year.

Motorists are being warned that those who have been proven in court to have broken the law and subsequently taken off the road can expect to see their details published.

The move comes amid concern over conviction rates for drink-driving.

Moyagh Murdock, the chief executive of the Road Safety Authority, said the plans for printing the names of disqualified drivers would act as a deterrent.

“We want to see a societal change, a cultural change in people’s attitudes,” she said.

“It is very unacceptable now to drink and drive, but there still seems to be a societal acceptability to drive when you have been disqualified.”

The joint Oireachtas committee on transport and communications was told it was hoped the disqualified drivers list could be published from early next year.

The hearing also heard from Garda Deputy Commissioner John Twomey, who revealed 7,519 drivers were stopped and arrested, last year, on suspicion of driving under the influence of drink or drugs. More than 2,100 were over the legal limit and were served with fixed penalty notices.

The deputy commissioner said there were 4,123 drink-driving cases completed in the courts, and 3,488 drivers were convicted in 2014.

Other figures released to the committee showed that from June 22, when new road traffic laws came into effect, to the end of October, gardaí have used tougher powers of arrest to detain 456 disqualified drivers stopped while behind the wheel.

Elsewhere, the RSA said 2015 was on course to be a new record for safety in terms of the number of people who have been killed in accidents, with 144 deaths.

The authority said it has set a target of reducing the annual road death toll to 124 by 2020.

The meeting was being held after criticism of a claimed 40% conviction rate for drink-driving cases in the district court system.

The Courts Service dismissed the analysis, and released data that put the figure between 85% an 88%.

District court president Judge Rosemary Horgan warned about inaccurate and unbalanced media reports following the release of statistics on conviction rates.

Tommy Broughan, the TD who sought the figures from the Government, defended his original analysis, insisting it was based on the the data initially released.

Tommy Broughan

Meanwhile, it is understood the Road Safety Authority has been in talks with the Courts Service, the Department of Transport, the Data Protection Commissioner, and gardaí, over plans for the disqualified drivers’ publication.

Drivers can be disqualified by the courts if they reach 12 penalty points in three years and put off the road for six months, with the threshold as low as seven penalty points for learners.

The RSA intends to publish the names of drivers put off the road by judges, and keep their names on the list for the length of time they have been disqualified. It will not apply to anyone barred from driving following an accumulation of penalty points.

Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe said the precedent was already there with tax defaulters and disqualified directors being named by government agencies.