AGSI refuse to extend points system

Ireland’s middle-ranking police officers today said they would refuse to extend the drivers’ penalty points system.

The Garda Siochana force’s Sergeants and Inspectors Association said they would not co-operate with Government plans to embrace offences other than speeding into the penalty points net, which can lead to drivers’ disqualification.

General secretary George Maybury stressed that his members were fully in favour of the points system as such and had backed its implementation.

But they were demanding a fully computerised set-up to back up the imposition of penalties.

Mr Maybury said officers were currently being asked to run the points system “manually, with rulers and pens.”

Ironically, the move by the association coincided with an announcement by Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne of a high-profile operation aimed at cutting down on road accidents over the Easter holiday.

The operation will last from midnight tomorrow until midnight Easter Monday and focus on speeding, drink-driving, non-wearing of seatbelts, and the behaviour of young drivers, with checkpoints in all police divisions nationwide.

The move follows a rash of accidents during the Easter period last year when five people were killed on the roads of the Irish Republic and more than 130 were injured.

Mr Maybury said: “We will continue to support the imposition of penalty points for speeding. But it is absolute bureaucratic nightmare.

“We need a properly resourced, computer-based system to expedite and manage penalty points properly. We are opposed to the addition of other offences until we get that.

“Essentially, we are being asked to operate a 19th century-based system, when with modern technology it could be streamlined and made more efficient.”

Road safety organisations have reported a dramatic drop in the number of deaths from accidents since the penalty speeding curbs became a reality three months ago, following years of delays.