Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)

I commend my colleague Deputy O'Dowd for bringing this motion before the House. I strongly agree with the need for legislation and urgent reform of the penalty points system.

All Members are aware of the positive effect the introduction of penalty points had on road safety when introduced several years ago. It led to a 20% reduction in road deaths by December 2002. Unfortunately, since then all progress made has been lost with road fatalities rising again each year.

Why have people who initially slowed down and drove responsibly reverted to speeding? They have done so because there are too many loopholes in the implementation of the penalty points system. Careless and speeding drivers have a 50% chance, even if caught for speeding, of not having to pay a fine or of points going on their driving licences. Half of all speeding summonses have not been served while of those served many have been thrown out of court. Only one in three drivers surrenders his or her driving licence voluntarily.

The current system is also inefficient in the collection of penalty point data. Defendants are requested to bring their driving licences to court so the driving licence numbers can be recorded and the penalty points allocated to the correct driving record. If a defendant does not hand up his or her licence, the licence number may not be captured. Only one in three drivers on 12 points surrenders his or her licence voluntarily as they are supposed to do. Out of the 121 drivers currently on 12 penalty points, only 40 have handed their licences into their local tax offices as of 1 November 2007. A statement from the Courts Service on the system states:

There is an urgent need for reform of the current legislation which is failing to keep "fixed penalty" offences out of court. As these offences are considered suitable for fixed penalties without the intervention of the court, the logical position is that such cases should only be before a court if the alleged offender wishes to have the case adjudicated by a court. The present system results in cases being dealt with in court although there is no intention on the part of the defendant to defend it. It should be a matter for the defendant to indicate that a court hearing is required. A change such as this would have the effect of considerably reducing the number of cases going to court while at the same time increasing the effectiveness of the system.

While I understand there is a legislation issue, penalty points are not imposed on cars from Northern Ireland and other countries. Some work on rectifying this is underway in Europe which I hope will be completed soon.

The Road Safety Authority expects the long-awaited and long-promised national speed camera network to be operational by the second quarter of 2008. These cameras are expected to operate on enforcement in the region of 6,000 hours a month. This will dramatically increase the number of motorists caught speeding and their follow-up fixed penalty notices.

If current payment rates continue, hundreds of thousands of summonses will enter the District Courts. It is quite possible the system will collapse due to the enormous volume of cases. This was highlighted by Fine Gael's then spokesperson on transport, Deputy Olivia Mitchell, when the proposed roll-out of the safety camera network was announced. Motorists must be educated in reducing speed.

Safety cameras need to be placed on dangerous areas of the road network where a maximum number of lives can be saved rather than the soft targets of, say, 50 km zones and where they are used more as cash cows. A proper advertising campaign needs to be established for the introduction of these cameras to avoid a debacle like that of the recent driving test announcement.

If the Government fails to take action on this issue by ignoring the motion then it is failing in its commitment to road safety and on saving lives on the roads.

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