Penalty points report - No more looking the other way

If ever there was any doubt that Ireland is a nation of fixers it will be dispelled by the quashing of penalty points.

It explains the knee-jerk reaction of most people when they either break the rules or run foul of the law who ask: “Who can fix this for me? Who do I know that get me out of this jam?”

Given that it is operated behind closed doors, the penalty points system is widely perceived as yet another example of favouritism and hypocrisy, thus underlining the popular view that the law is a twin-track system dividing the privileged classes from the average citizen.

The fact that almost 11,000 notices issued to motorists each year are terminated will raise questions about the discretionary powers of the gardaí. It also brings into sharp focus the image of the Irish people as ‘fixers’ compared to the citizens of most other northern European countries.

Rightly or wrongly, the penalty points controversy will strengthen perceptions of an ingrained national tendency to look for ways of getting around difficulties and evade problems at every turn. As one observer succinctly put it, “that predisposition is almost in our DNA”. A thesis is waiting to be written by a budding sociologist on this self-interested view of how the game should be played and the rules applied.

Significantly there is no evidence in the internal Garda report to suggest that there was any act of corruption, deception, or financial gain by the gardaí in the quashing of penalty points. Yet, the lack of an independent report and the failure to name certain names is bound to arouse suspicions. It would be outrageous if anyone singled out for special treatment remained anonymous. With charges of ‘whitewash’ and ‘cover-up’ in the air, it will spark a fresh spate of nod-and-wink rumour about their identity.

Defending the integrity of the system, Justice Minister Alan Shatter has emphasised there was no evidence of criminality on the part of gardaí. With three out of 113 officers facing disciplinary measures, he stressed that strengthened procedures should be put in place. And he has rightly criticised the refusal of Independent TD Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan to engage further with gardaí investigating his quashed penalty points, effectively blocking the inquiry.

Perhaps more than any other factor in this controversy, the withholding of certain names which should properly be put in the public arena will give rise to justifiable public concerns. It makes a mockery of this Government’s pledge to operate a transparent administration, up-front with the electorate. Ironically if that happened, some politicians could be forced to emulate their counterparts in Britain by falling on their swords when cock-ups occur. That would indeed be a radical departure.

In VIP cases, the abolition of penalty points mirrors the hypocrisy of the outdated constitutional privilege which protects politicians from being arrested either when going to, returning from, or being within, the precincts of either of the Houses of Parliament, the Dáil or the Seanad. Reform of that privileged and utterly unwarranted protection, a hangover from the Civil War era, is long overdue.

Regardless of whether they are judges, celebrities, journalists, politicians, or gardaí, there should be no concealment of special categories of people under the system. Any VIP who had penalty points cancelled should be named and the reasons made clear. Why should their names be kept secret?