Mr. Tom O'Mahony:

If he had received penalty points, he would have received a letter with a fine and the penalty points. One is supposed to go to a police station, pay the fine and give one's driving licence details so the penalty points can be recorded. If a person does not do it in a prescribed period of time, they get another letter and the fine is increased. If they still ignore it, they will get a summons. Under the legislation as it is at the moment, there is no "out" from going to court at that point. If a person has ignored the first two letters, they are definitely going to court and there is no other provision. It was agreed by the Oireachtas that it would probably improve the efficiency of the system and reduce the demands on the courts system if the person could have the option of paying a further increased fine at the point at which a summons is issued. In other words, they would have a third option of going to the post office, paying an increased amount again and having the points recorded on their licence.

At the time we were drafting the legislation, everybody was in agreement with the principle of this and the courts and the Garda were anxious to have it in place, so it was put into the legislation and the legislation was passed in 2010. It then ran into implementation difficulties. The implementation is between the Garda and the courts, but it was going to require significant resources, including the development of IT systems. Unfortunately, we were now into the period of severe cutbacks in everybody's resources and it became an issue for quite a period of time that neither the courts nor the Garda were in a position to proceed with the development of the IT systems that would enable this measure to be implemented. Our legal advice was that one could not commence the provision until these systems were in place.

The light at the end of the tunnel is that over the past number of months, particularly in light of the Comptroller and Auditor General's report and the various other things that have happened, there has been a major effort, through the group co-chaired by our Department and the Department of Justice and Equality, which includes the Garda and the courts, to resolve all outstanding issues around penalty points. We are able to do this because of the previous issue we were talking about, namely, the fact that the RSA is reducing its demand on us. We are coming up with a substantial financial contribution, although the systems are not our systems. We are making the money available along with the Department of Justice and Equality so that these IT systems can be developed. I need confirmation on whether it is the courts or the Garda that has taken ownership of it.