Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to comment briefly on the report of the Garda Inspectorate. Some of the matters that have come to light in recent days are scarcely believable and point to potentially serious defects in the administration of justice in this State. I hope the new commission of investigation will cast a light on the performance of all Ministers for Justice over the past three decades. It is unfortunate that the group of "others" - the fourth group in the Dáil - did not get an opportunity to comment on recent matters, because the shocking reports given to the Dáil earlier today by the Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy Shatter, raise serious questions about the Minister and the Attorney General. The Minister failed to deal adequately or swiftly with issues brought to his attention by Garda whistleblowers, and it now seems he is not keeping abreast of issues raised with his Department pertaining to the recording of incoming and outgoing calls to Garda stations.

I have always been a strong supporter of the proposal to establish an independent Garda authority. It was the policy of my former party, the Labour Party, for several decades, and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, prepared a very fine paper on the subject while he was in Opposition. I hope the proposals in that paper will form the nucleus of the new independent Garda authority.

I welcome the report by the chief inspector of Garda Inspectorate, Mr. Bob Olson, as significant in its own right and I have studied it carefully. For the past four or five years I have been raising the issue of the enforcement of road traffic laws and fixed charge notices. I salute the courage and determination of Sergeant Maurice McCabe and Garda John Wilson and commend them on their service to the Irish nation. The Garda Inspectorate report vindicates both men and the information they presented about anomalies in the penalty points system. I welcome the Minister's correction of the record of the House this afternoon and his comments in relation to the whistleblowers' conduct. I also commend my Dáil colleagues Deputies Mick Wallace and Clare Daly on their work in this area. I welcome the Garda Inspectorate's recommendations on the establishment of a criminal justice working group, the updating of the fixed charge penalty system manual, the need to improve the notepad tracking system and the need to investigate the issue of penalty points offences committed in company cars or hired cars.

The report deals with the 5% of penalty points notices that were removed. The other side of the coin, as the Minister will be aware, is the failure of the courts system to impose points and the Judiciary's flagrant disregard for laws that were passed by this House. A recent judgment by Mr. Justice Gerard Hogan in the High Court has confirmed that section 55 of the Road Traffic Act 2010 precludes District Court judges from allowing offenders to make donations to the court poor box to avoid incurring penalty points for certain road traffic offences, but this practice continues. There was an incident recently in which a well-known business person involved in a charity avoided a conviction by paying €250 to the court poor box.

Section 55 of the Road Traffic Act 2010 clearly states: "Section 1(1) of the Probation of Offenders Act 1907 does not apply to a penalty point offence (within the meaning of section 1(1) of the Act of 2002)." The Minister has informed me in replies to parliamentary questions that 1,255 defendants in 2012 and 1,754 defendants in 2013 avoided penalty points convictions in court by making donations to the poor box. That is an appalling lacuna. The Minister has stated his intention to reform the law relating to the use of the court poor box with the criminal justice (community sanctions) Bill. However, in the meantime, I urge him to ensure that there is full and proper enforcement of section 55, which was enacted by a commencement order signed by the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar, on 1 June 2011. This is particularly pertinent because of Mr. Justice Hogan's judgment in the case of Kennedy v. Gibbons, [2014] IEHC 67. Significantly, Mr. Justice Hogan ruled in that case that the cumulative effects of section 55 and other provisions of the Road Traffic Act on penalty points offences were such as "to override the District Court's power at common law to accept a donation to the poor box in lieu of proceeding to a formal conviction in the case of those road traffic offences which attract the application of penalty points on a mandatory basis." Mr. Justice Hogan's judgment categorically places central importance on section 55 of the 2010 Act. I strongly urge the Ministers, Deputies Shatter and Varadkar, to consult An Garda Síochána and the Courts Service, including by ensuring that a specific direction is sent to the President of the District Court, so that all parties are aware of the judgment and its implications, thereby ensuring that persons charged with road traffic offences attracting penalty points cannot avoid conviction by making donations to the court poor box. This issue is just one strand of the overall fixed charge system, but it is significant and has been largely ignored. The Minister has an opportunity here to remove that significant anomaly on that side of the penalty points issue.

I note that the Minister has prepared a detailed action plan on the inspectorate report and I look forward to the implementation of that report.

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