Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 16 May 2013

Public Accounts Committee

2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 26: Collection of Motor Taxation
Vote 20: An Garda Síochána

12:30 pm

Mr. Martin Callinan:

No. There is a certain irony in the context of the discussion we had about discretion and cautions. Traffic people specialise in traffic matters; detectives also specialise. They all have their particular roles. We are very clear that we applied the law across the board, which is how it should be. No one is bean counting. That said, it would be naive of me to try to convince members that people do not judge us by the level of enforcement, detection and prosecution. Generally speaking, that tangible evidence speaks to our effectiveness and it is a reasonable position to take. That is why we always try our best to solve and prevent crime. In terms of getting X number of summonses-----