Courts Service say fine pay option explains drop in speed convictions

The Courts Service has said a new initiative giving motorists a further chance to pay a fine for a road traffic offence, rather than go to court, explains a dramatic reduction in speeding convictions.

Figures provided by Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan, in response to a parliamentary question, revealed an almost 40% reduction in speeding convictions between 2016 and 2018.

The figures were detailed in Saturday's

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No information was provided in the reply, or from subsequent queries to the Department of Justice or the Gardaí, as to why the speeding convictions fell.

A Courts Service spokesman said the coverage did not take account of a “successful new initiative”, introduced in October 2017, providing people detected as having committed a road traffic offence a third chance to pay a fixed charge (fine), rather than go to court.

He said: “The 3rd payment option is served with the summons to attend Court and recipients avoid the need to attend court if they sign a declaration, accept their penalty points and pay a fixed charge.”

"Courts Service data shows that 17,821 have availed of the facility, up to 4 April 2019. Speeding offences are a subset of this figure. This success is the main reason for the reduction in speeding convictions.”