Failure to match driver to licence enabled over 8,000 to escape penalty points

There were 48,674 cases where a motorist was holding a mobile phone while driving. File photo

A total of 8,400 motorists dodged penalty points last year because their licence could not be matched with official databases.

The Department of Transport said there had been 183,856 penalty point offences recorded in 2024, the majority for speeding or holding a mobile phone.

However, in around 4.6% of cases, the person could not be identified, for example in cases of foreign licences, the driver never having had a licence in the first place, or because of incomplete information.

Figures from the National Vehicle and Driver Database show there were almost 500,000 penalty point offences recorded between 2022 and 2024. Of those, 478,703 were successfully matched to the driver involved but in 20,813 cases, no match could be made.

More than one-fifth of the offences – or 108,393 cases – were linked to speeding in a zone with a 50km/h limit. A further 75,374 drivers had penalty points applied for exceeding a 100km/h limit while 58,284 were caught speeding above a 120km/h limit.

There were 48,674 cases where a motorist was holding a mobile phone while driving and 18,642 learners caught driving unaccompanied by a qualified person.

Around 7,700 people were given penalty points for failing to wear a seat belt while 2,855 were caught out for having bald or poorly maintained tyres. A total of 9,307 cases involved running red lights, as were 9,897 for driving without insurance.

Other offences included 1,352 where a youth under 17 was not wearing a seatbelt and 1,841 where a young child was not properly secured in a car.

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Penalty points were given to 56 people for driving a “dangerously defective vehicle” while 219 were caught speeding in the vicinity of roadworks.

The driver database also listed 68 cases where a car failed to drive on the left-hand side, 19 of failing to obey rules at a level crossing, and 230 for failure to stop for a garda.

There were around 1,200 motorists nabbed for dangerous overtaking and 9,683 cases where a driver did not have a valid NCT cert.

Asked about the records, a spokesman said: “The Department of Transport and the RSA always make our best efforts to match offences to driver licences. But this is limited by the information provided to us through the court process or from An Garda Síochána."