Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister and I are aware of the claims regarding the alleged quashing of penalty points for road traffic offences. When provided with the documents the Minister forwarded a list of all the allegations to the Minister for Justice and Equality expressing his concern and asked that the matter be fully investigated. The Government believes the matter must be fully investigated. I understand the Garda Commissioner has ordered an investigation of the allegations under the direction of Assistant Commissioner John O'Mahoney. They are allegations at this stage, although many Deputies have commented openly on them in the media recently. However, it would not be appropriate to comment further until the investigation is complete and the Government makes a decision on how it will respond to the investigation. This issue is being taken very seriously and will be investigated thoroughly, as it must be.

On the questions asked by Deputy Ellis, if a learner driver drives without appropriate learner plates, they will receive penalty points and if they receive six penalty points, they will have their licence revoked. That is an important new change. There will be roadside testing for drugs and a process will be put in place to achieve that. There will be two stages in the process. The first is to ensure that we can do roadside drug testing. Every Member would support that. At a later date we hope to be able to provide the mechanisms for doing that as well. Initially, we will carry out roadside testing. The Deputy asked some other questions and I will revert back to him on them.

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