Mr. Dara Lynott:

It is more difficult in terms of the level of evidence one must collect. One must convince the Director of Public Prosecutions that it is worth taking the case and then once the DPP decides to take the case, one is no longer in control of the timelines of where and when that case is prosecuted. Summary convictions allow a much shorter period between detection and conviction and there is a greater number of cases that warrant summary conviction with low fines than major indictable fines which would be reserved for large scale pollution or where there was collusion or where offences were planned. Quite often a number of these offences are due to a certain amount of negligence or not being thoughtful about what one is doing, but a summary offence gets the message across and behaviours are changed.