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

Fixed charge notices are provided for under the Road Traffic Act 2002 and are an alternative to prosecution. They give a motorist the opportunity to acknowledge the offence, pay the fixed charge and, where the offence is a penalty point offence, incur the appropriate penalty points. While the issuing of such notice does not constitute commencement of legal proceedings, it normally leads to a prosecution if the charge is not paid.

There can be circumstances, however, where the fixed charge notice may be cancelled, in accordance with Garda procedures drawn up in the light of legislative exemptions and prosecutorial guidelines. Cancellation occurs where it is believed the evidence would not sustain a prosecution or a prosecution would not be appropriate, fair or proportionate. The procedures provide authority to district officers, or inspectors acting as district officers, and an inspector in the fixed charge processing office to cancel fixed charge notices.

Cancellation can occur in circumstances where, for example, exemptions apply to emergency vehicles or the wearing of seatbelts, or where there are evidential difficulties, such as where the registration number registered by a speed camera does not correspond to the vehicle in question, or where there are emergency medical circumstances such as, for example, a sick child being driven to hospital, an imminent birth, or a medical professional rushing to a sick or elderly patient. Access to cancel a fixed charge notice through PULSE is restricted to users with the rank of inspector or higher.

As the Deputy will be aware, allegations concerning the cancellation of fixed charge notices are being examined by an assistant commissioner who is due to report his findings shortly. 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. What I would, again, say is this: these allegations are being taken seriously and are being thoroughly investigated. It would be premature and wrong to assume that all of these cancellations of fixed charge notices were inappropriate. I would caution against this continued rush to judgment before we know all of the facts. As the Garda Commissioner has said, this would be unfair, both to members of the Garda and the motorists concerned. Let us, therefore, await the outcome of the investigation which, as the Commissioner has said, will be both comprehensive and rigorous.

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