Brennan extends penalty points scheme

Motorists will incur penalty points on their licence for not wearing seat belts or having insurance, the Transport Minister said today.

Seamus Brennan vowed the offences would be introduced this summer despite protests from gardai that they could not be enforced before the introduction of a new computer system.

In a blunt message to gardai and drivers, Mr Brennan said the “law of the land” would be enforced.

“I do acknowledge that the gardai are under extra pressure but what can be more important than trying to save lives on the roads?

“Road deaths are down 40% since the introduction of penalty points which is really a phenomenal figure.”

He said he was anxious that motorists did not fall back into their old habits and this was the reason he was extending the penalty points scheme.

Yesterday the Garda Siochana force’s Sergeants and Inspectors Association said it 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.”

Mr Brennan said today he was convinced the majority of rank and file gardai were in favour of the scheme.

“I heard what the AGSI said yesterday. This is the same organisation that before the introduction of penalty points called on me to abandon it.

“We weren’t in a position to do that and I think we were right not to because a number of people are alive now who otherwise would not be there.”

He said he hoped to punish those who drive without insurance (five penalty points) from June 1 and those who do not wear seat belts (two penalty points) from July 1.

Drivers who do not incur points over a 12-month period will be rewarded by having the cost of their insurance reduced.

The penalty points system was introduced last November and so far only covers speeding.

Mr Brennan said the scheme had been extremely successful, with 15,000 drivers incurring points on their licences so far.

Drivers have also been warned of a major crackdown on speeding over Easter.