David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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The third payment option interacts with the summons and the fixed charge notice system. The two agencies that manage the systems are the Courts Service and An Garda Síochána. At present a fixed charge notice is issued by an outsourced print service provider on behalf of An Garda Síochána. Summonses are issued by the Courts Service following an application from An Garda Síochána. These two processes need to be linked to provide for the third payment option.

The technical solution between the Courts Service and An Garda Síochána represents a departure from current arrangements made necessary to accommodate the simultaneous generation of a summons issued by the Courts Service and a fixed charge notice issued by An Garda Síochána. The agreed approach involves the electronic generation of summonses by means of an electronic file transfer from the Courts Service to an external print service provider contracted by An Garda Síochána. Each summons will then be individually printed with an associated fixed charge notice and will represent the second such notice and the third opportunity to pay, for the purposes of service.

The systems have become more integrated and linked together now. However, the Deputies are correct. We have to be vigilant and monitor this. It will be monitored carefully from now on to ensure the problems Deputy O'Callaghan and Deputy Chambers brought up cannot and will not happen again.