Ms Moyagh Murdock:

I thank the Chairman for the kind invitation to address the joint committee on the matter of driving licences and disqualified drivers.

The disqualification of drivers is an important road safety measure. It helps safety on our roads in two ways, first, by keeping dangerous drivers off our roads and, second, it has a deterrent effect of possible disqualification which reduces the risk of drivers engaging in bad behaviour. In that regard the proper administration and enforcement of driver disqualification is critical to safety on our roads. The disqualification of drivers and the enforcement of the various provisions is a shared responsibility of the Road Safety Authority, RSA, the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, the Courts Service and An Garda Síochána.

For the information of members it might be helpful initially to describe the process that leads to a driver being disqualified. Essentially, there are two routes to disqualification, one is by accumulating seven penalty points in the case of a learner or novice or 12 penalty points within a three-year period in the case of a person who holds a full driving licence. The second is by way of a court disqualification on being convicted of an offence for which the penalty involves disqualification from driving. There is also a lesser known process known as a special disqualification order where a court order is sought to disqualify a driver, usually on the basis of not being medically fit to drive. This occurs infrequently, with only a handful of such cases being taken each year.

Once the disqualification is confirmed, the information is updated on the national vehicle driver file, NVDF, which contains the driver record and is operated by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. The updating of the driver record is initiated in the following circumstances: following notification from the Courts Service to the RSA via the national driver licence service, NDLS, where the disqualification results from the court disqualification; following notification by An Garda Síochána to the Department's driver and vehicle computer services division, DVCSD, in Shannon, of the payment of a fixed charge notice for certain drink driving offences or where the accumulation of penalty points reaches the threshold for disqualification; following notification by the Courts Service of a conviction for a penalty points offence to the DVCSD where the accumulation of penalty points reaches the threshold for disqualification. In each instance, the driver is written to by either the Courts Service or the RSA and informed that the licence must be surrendered to the NDLS within 14 days of the disqualification taking effect. When the licence is surrendered the NDLS updates the driver record to reflect the licence has been received. If it is not received, no amendment is made.

Recent media reports suggest that the number of licences surrendered is at a low level and this is borne out by the available statistics. The table provided sets out the statistics and these indicate a very poor level of compliance. We can see for the year 2017 that just one in six of those disqualified surrendered their licence. It is a legal requirement for drivers who are disqualified, whether by the courts or by exceeding the penalty point limits, to return their licences to the licensing authority, the Road Safety Authority. It is an offence not to return a licence following disqualification. The penalty for non-return of a licence on disqualification is a fine up to a maximum of €1,000 for a first offence, and up to €2,000 for a second or subsequent offence.

As members can see from the table, only a relatively small minority comply with this requirement. In 2017, some 9,449 drivers were disqualified by the courts, but only 1,289 surrendered their licences. There are no doubt a myriad of reasons for this, including the fact that in some cases the driver does not hold a licence in the first place. However, the level of compliance is entirely unacceptable and demonstrates a disregard and disrespect by those individuals for road traffic legislation. Clearly, there has not been a strong culture of surrendering a licence in this country.

I contrast this with the position in Northern Ireland. I know from engaging with the Driver and Vehicle Agency also know as the DVA, that it is the norm to surrender a licence in Northern Ireland. No doubt this is attributable to the strong security presence during the Troubles when vehicles were frequently stopped and documents demanded which created a culture of compliance. Compliance with this element of road traffic legislation in our nearby jurisdiction is also mirrored in the other areas of road safety as we know such as zero tolerance of a learner driver in Northern Ireland driving unaccompanied.

While the legislation in both jurisdictions is relatively similar, attitudes and behaviour are very different. It should be noted that the mechanism for surrendering a licence appears to be less cumbersome in that it is surrendered to the court prior to the court hearing and certainly on conviction. It is then transmitted to the licensing authority.

In this jurisdiction, the licence is not retained in court. Rather, the driver is asked to post it to the licensing authority. The rationale for this approach is that there is a period allowed for the driver to appeal a conviction. In the North, they hold on to the licence while the appeal takes place. There is no legal provision in this jurisdiction to provide for the courts to retain the licence.

At the same time, it is important to bear in mind that the matter of greater concern is whether people are driving while disqualified. Non-return of licences cannot be taken as a proxy measurement for those driving while disqualified. A person who has retained his or her licence may not be driving, while a person who has returned the licence, even to keep his or her head below the parapet, may continue to drive. The penalty for driving while disqualified is a fine up to a maximum of €5,000 and-or a prison term of up to six months. The low surrender rates naturally begs the question as to whether those who are disqualified continue to drive while disqualified. We know for sure that some do because we have data that show 84 convictions for driving while disqualified in 2017. Naturally, as CEO of the Road Safety Authority, this is a very serious concern for me and is another challenge in keeping our roads safe.

This brings us to the question of enforcement of the licence surrender process and the general disqualification rules. This is primarily a matter for An Garda Síochána, but requires a significant input from the RSA and the Department of Transport Tourism and Sport. The Garda Síochána has access to the driver record and is able to see whether a driver is disqualified and whether the licence has been surrendered in a particular case. However, this information is not easily accessible at the roadside during enforcement activities. As the Garda does not currently have the technology such as mobile devices to access the database files in real time, this inhibits effective detection of offenders.

To prosecute a driver successfully for failure to surrender a licence having been disqualified, the RSA would most likely have to have a representative in court alongside the Garda to give evidence on behalf of the RSA on the failure to surrender the licence. The RSA would need significant resources to do that. The Garda would also need significant resources to prosecute the thousands of cases of failure to surrender licences.

I understand the Garda has many priorities but one of my main responsibilities is to make the case for the appropriate resources, be they personnel or technology, to be allocated to road safety matters in An Garda Síochána. I have been on record in recent times to express the dissatisfaction of the RSA that the Garda roads policing unit has not been staffed or prioritised to the levels committed to. I continue to raise this directly with the Garda at the highest level and I have also expressed my concern to the Policing Authority about this matter. Clearly, if the roads policing unit is not at core strength, the ability of the unit to enforce the law is diminished and drivers who should not be on our roads may come to believe there is little chance of their being detected. The visible presence of gardaí with smartphone look-up capability on our roads is the measure that will do most to reduce death and injury on our roads. It would also be the best use of the limited resources available to ensure targeted effective and smarter enforcement.

As regards the specific issue of how we improve the compliance levels so that more disqualified drivers surrender their licences, I think all the stakeholders should look at a number of measures which I will now set out. The principal purpose of licence surrender is to prevent drivers from continuing to drive while disqualified. Members will be aware that the RSA has explored the possibility of publishing lists of disqualified drivers. The purpose of this initiative would be to bring public pressure to bear on disqualified drivers to ensure they would not drive and be a danger on our roads as well as deterring them from committing the offences in the first instance that leads to disqualification. While there are legal and data protection impediments to proceeding with publishing such a list, we believe that the spirit of the proposal continues to have significant merit and we have more work to do to satisfy data protection requirements and to meet general data protection regulation, GDPR, requirements.

As part of this, we are exploring the possibility of creating an information portal where employers who have employees driving for work would, with appropriate privacy protections, be able to access their employees’ driver records. This would be a progressive step, especially in keeping professional drivers of buses and trucks who are disqualified off our roads. We are aware that they have been guilty of this offence.

It is clear that the greatest impact can be made by enhancing enforcement capabilities of the Garda to detect disqualified drivers who drive while disqualified more so than pursuing and prosecuting those who do not surrender their licences. The RSA is aware the Garda has been developing an initiative that will see a specific focus on disqualified drivers including the need to surrender the licence. I understand that the Garda is about to roll out this initiative which will allow it to extract the specific information on driver disqualification from the driver record and distribute it directly to Garda divisions so that the information is known to local gardaí without having to access the driver record. This should help target offenders and give more focused information on the ground and enable enforcement to take place in a proactive fashion.

I am satisfied that the legislation is adequate for both the offences being discussed here today, that is, the non-surrender of licences when disqualified from driving and driving while disqualified, along with the penalties prescribed therein, and that the necessary powers have been given to the Garda to deal with the issue effectively. The necessary funding and resourcing must also be in place, however, to enforce and change attitudes and behaviour.

The RSA acknowledges and fully supports the Garda modernisation and renewal programme commitment to maximise the potential of technology. In practice, this means that a garda will have access to all systems needed to undertake his or her duties on his or her person. It also commits to the expansion of systems such as the automated number plate recognition, ANPR, system and the creation of watch lists. There is no reason such lists should not include the vehicles owned by disqualified drivers. In our regular interactions with the senior Garda roads policing management, the RSA has affirmed a commitment to support in whatever way it can An Garda Síochána in the development and roll-out of smart mobile technologies.

I acknowledge that there is an issue as regards the surrender of licences, the statistics do not lie. If all stakeholders work together, however, we can make progress in resolving the issue.

I will touch briefly on broader road safety matters. Last year was the safest year on record and we are making progress. I am afraid the position today is that we have an increased level of fatalities as against the same period in 2017. Seventy-six people have died on our roads, an increase of five on the same period last year. I appeal to all road users, as we enter the holiday period, to be extra vigilant. There are greater levels of traffic on our roads at this time of year, with people driving on roads in areas with which they are not familiar. Each one of us can take simple steps that will make our roads safer. Almost all collisions are preventable. It is up to each individual to change behaviour. We will reverse the current spike and trend in the past month and will reduce the number of fatalities on our roads.