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

As the Deputy should know if he has ready the O'Mahoney report and the larger report furnished to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality, all of the issues he has raised have been addressed. There is nothing new in any of these matters as far as I am aware.

Nothing new has been reported in the media other than a look back at matters that were the subject of public comment and controversy earlier this year. These are all issues that are addressed within the O'Mahoney report and the detailed report that was published subsequently. The Deputy is a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality and if issues arise from the report that he believes are appropriate to pursue in the public interest, he should pursue them. I would be interested in any conclusions the joint committee reaches on what are issues of importance, but let us not exaggerate the situation. The vast majority of fixed-charge notices are paid and no issue arises. In 50% of the notices that were cancelled there were incontrovertibly valid reasons for their cancellation, such as cases in which a person received a notice and it turned out that the registration number of the car in question was not the same as that of the person's car. A range of issues of that nature arose where fixed-charge notices were issued to what turned out to be unmarked Garda cars on duty and in pursuit of individuals.

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