Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

The suggestions for consideration that the Courts Service sets out in its submission to my Department are predicated on a fixed charge sum having the same legal status as a monetary fine imposed by a court following conviction of an offence. This is not the case. Therefore, on those grounds, most of the suggestions made are not legally feasible. It must be borne in mind that the fixed charge system applies to offences that come under the criminal law system. The vital distinction is that whereas a fine levied by a court following conviction is a monetary penalty, that is, a debt amount due and owed by the person concerned, a fixed charge is an amount that a person may opt to pay in lieu of being prosecuted in court. A person is not under a legal obligation to pay a fixed charge.

I appreciate that the Courts Service is seeking to reduce the number of fixed charge offences going into the court prosecution system where a fixed charge has not been paid within the statutory 56-day period. The suggestion that a fixed charge be automatically owed and that an onus should be placed on the recipient of a fixed charge notice to indicate that he or she wishes to go to court as opposed to having this the default position is to be examined, as is the feasibility of the suggestion that a driver licence number be recorded when a car is being taxed.

More generally, my Department has written to the Courts Service recently and all other stakeholder agencies and Departments involved in the road safety strategy to elicit any and all suggestions for possible inclusion in the Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill that I will be progressing in the latter half of this year. Suggestions received from agencies, including the Courts Service, such as the issues I have referred to, will be the subject of consultation between my officials and the other agencies concerned.

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