Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is of the utmost importance that the integrity of the fixed charge system is preserved. When the Deputy said this must stop, I presume it is not his view that where there are appropriate circumstances for a fixed charge to be cancelled, that it should not be cancelled. I gave the Deputy instances of the type of circumstances that can arise. The Deputy may be interested to know that in the three and a half year period from 1 January 2009 to 30 June 2012, a total of 1,460,726 fixed charge notices were issued. The allegations I have received, when examined, apply to fewer than 300 incidents. These are allegations.

From the interim report I received, I have noted that some of the cancellations of fixed-charge notices relate to ordinary individuals who are not VIPs or other such individuals. At least one person has been very unfairly named in this House. The individuals to whom I refer are those in circumstances in which a car identified as speeding is not the actual car owned by an individual who has received a ticket. There have been other instances, including one in which a young child was being taken to hospital in an emergency.

I take allegations of this nature with the utmost seriousness, as does the Garda Commissioner, who has appointed an assistant commissioner to conduct an investigation and report on the allegations. My Department received the allegations last September and they were referred to the Garda Commissioner in October after they had been considered. I have received an interim report from the Commissioner, but I will not be making any comment on any of the allegations until the final report is available. These allegations are being taken seriously and investigated thoroughly, but it would be premature and wrong to assume that all cancellations of fixed-charge notices were inappropriate. I would caution against any rush to judgment before we know all of the facts. As the Garda Commissioner has said, this would be unfair to both members of the Garda Síochána and the motorists concerned. I urge Deputies to await the outcome of the investigation that is under way. When the outcome of the investigation is known, I will bring it to the attention of Members.

In so far as there is any suggestion that the Garda is not doing its job properly in regard to speeding, fixed-charge notices and the road traffic legislation, Members should note the interesting statistics on total annual road fatalities between January and the end of November in each of a number of given years. At the end of November 2007 there had been 300 fatalities on the roads. At the end of November 2011 there had been 168, and at the end of November 2012 - this year - there had been 152. One hundred and fifty-two people too many lost their lives on our roads this year, but the decreasing number of fatalities indicates that the Garda takes very seriously the application of the road traffic regulations to individuals. The vast majority of individuals are aware of this, and the vast majority of those who receive a fixed-charge notice pay the fine. However, we must preserve a system in which there is a basis for cancelling notices where they are issued inappropriately or disproportionately or where a mistake is made whereby the wrong individual receives a notice.

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