Mr. Tom Ward:

I might be able to help with this. Until recently I was a member of the criminal justice working group looking at the fixed charge notice system. Certainly one of the elements being worked on by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport is a master licence record project whereby driver licences would be matched to registration numbers of vehicles. The reliance in the system for the person to produce the licence will, I hope, in the near future be at an end. Whether a person attends court or does not, the aim would be that as close to 100% of cases as possible would be matched. At this time we are completely reliant on the individual bringing his or her licence to court and producing it at the required time. If the person leaves before the case is dealt with and without producing the licence, we provide the data as best we can to the Road Safety Authority to match the licence to the penalty imposed.