Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

With this issue, there were approximately 1.4 million fixed charge penalty point notices issued. In some cases - less than 5% - the points were cancelled, and approximately half of those cancellations arose from technical reasons, such as the speed sign being in the wrong place, incorrect identification of a car, etc. In turn, a number of cases were cancelled because of common-sense decisions made by gardaí, such as in the case of a person being in a rush to hospital and so on. In some cases, there are questions to be answered, with Garda officers issuing fixed penalty points outside their jurisdiction or where there is no documentary evidence as to why the cancellation took place.

The Government and the Minister for Justice and Equality take those cases quite seriously, which is why the Minister made it very clear, following the publication of the report, that there can be no question of a doubt hanging over the fixed charge penalty points system. People have a right to believe that this is being administered fairly and impartially, with no kind of inside track for anybody. The Minister has made this very clear and set out seven principles to guide the administration of that system, with no question mark hanging over the integrity of the fixed charge notice system in the application of penalty points and no individual receiving preferential treatment because of a perceived status, relationship or celebrity. The law and any discretionary application of it to individuals must be administered fairly and with compassion and common sense.

No member of the Garda force should feel compelled by any person's position, relationship or celebrity status to treat that person any more or less favourably than anybody else. There must be proper oversight and transparency to the discretionary decision-making process and the applicable rules and procedures must be fully complied with. All statutory provisions, regulations, rules and protocols must be readily accessible and where an application is made to terminate a fixed-ticket charge where possible appropriate material to support any application made should be sought, while understanding that in some circumstances no material may exist or be obtainable. He has referred these new procedures to the Garda Inspectorate. The report he has published its being referred to an Oireachtas committee for its examination. Separate to this, the Comptroller and Auditor General is conducting an audit into how the system operates.

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