Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for outlining the provisions of this relatively short Bill which is technical in nature. The Fianna Fáil Party supports the legislation. The Oireachtas has done a good job on the issue of reducing the numbers of deaths and injuries on the roads by taking a non-partisan approach to road traffic legislation in the past ten years. As I have indicated previously, I wish to continue with this non-partisan approach.

As the Minister noted, the purpose of the Bill is to protect the integrity of the penalty points system. It is unfortunate that the circumstances he described have arisen. It appears, having taken advice from the Attorney General, that he is precluded from going further than he has in the Bill. The 2014 Act omitted to refer to the previous penalty points legislation and, as such, undermined the provisions contained therein. I remain concerned, given the retrospective nature of the Bill, about the potential for a legal challenge. It is essential that the integrity of the penalty points system be protected and that the law covering this area stand up to legal scrutiny.

As the Minister noted, the technical flaw in the legislation may affect up to 78,000 drivers. The introduction of penalty points for driving offences by the then Fianna Fáil Government helped to transform road safety and saved thousands of lives. The legislation in question was enacted with the assistance of the Fine Gael Party and other parties in opposition at the time. The House has maintained a relatively progressive approach to developing legislation and reducing the number of deaths on the roads. Notwithstanding this, the number of road deaths began to increase again in 2012, possibly as a result of a reduction in enforcement caused by a decline in Garda numbers. The previous chairman of the Road Safety Authority, Mr. Gay Byrne, laid the blame for the increase in the number of road deaths on the dramatic reduction in resources allocated to road safety. He referred specifically to the reduction in the budget of An Garda Síochána preventing the force from reaching the levels of detection that would result in a continued reduction in the numbers of deaths and injuries on the roads.

The Government must refocus its efforts to prevent road fatalities and provide the Garda with the resources it needs to carry out road safety duties. Once the legislation has been passed, the Minister will have an ongoing battle at the Cabinet table as he fights his corner to ensure additional resources are provided for the Garda for road safety purposes. While the Road Safety Authority is a self-financing agency which no longer requires financial transfers from the State, road safety efforts must be supported and funded through the Garda budget.

The Bill has been introduced to address technical flaws in the 2014 Act which extended the use of penalty points in road traffic legislation. Sections of the Act failed to make reference to the Road Traffic Act 2002 which had established the penalty points system. It is important that we find a solution to the problem that has arisen. Having sought some advice on the matter and spoken to people in legal circles, concerns remain that while the issue identified is a relatively insignificant technical error, it involves the imposition of more than 200,000 penalty points on more than 76,000 motorists.

While the issue is identified as technical in nature and relating to two specific offences, namely, using a vehicle without a test certificate and parking a vehicle in a dangerous position, the error relates to all motorists detected of a penalty point offence and all penalty points since 1 August. Because of its size and scale, the expectation is that there will be numerous challenges to the legislation and its retrospective nature. The Minister has identified one which has begun this week, rightly so, and he has identified the need to carry out the separation of powers. There will be no interruption to the enforcement of road traffic offences under the penalty points system. Indeed, the error identified will lead, as I said, to multiple challenges, one of which has already begun.

To take the substantive issue dealt with in the second part of the Bill, under section 8 of the Road Traffic Act 2014 reference is made to previous statutory provisions contained in sections 37 and 44 of the Road Traffic Act 2010. Sections 37 and 44 must be read in the context of section 35 of the Road Traffic Act 2010, and this updates the statutory provisions regarding the services of fixed charge notices. Section 35 is not an issue here. However, section 37 of the Road Traffic Act 2010 deals with the payment of fines where the motorist acknowledges wrongdoing, discharges the fine and accepts the penalty points within the statutory 56 days. Section 37 of the Road Traffic Act 2010 has not been enacted and, therefore, section 44 of the Road Traffic Act 2010 deals with the payment of a fixed charge and the service of a summons. This allows a motorist to pay a fine and accept the endorsement of penalty points on a licence beyond the expiry of the statutory 56 days and where a summons has issued. Prior to the summons being lodged and entered in court, this is a further mechanism in which it is proposed that a motorist can accept wrongdoing but not have to appear in court.

Section 44 of the Road Traffic Act 2010 has not been commenced. Therefore, section 8 of the Road Traffic Act 2014, which was commenced on 1 August 2014 under SI 147 of 2014, refers to both section 37 and 44. As neither of these sections of the Road Traffic Act 2010 have been enacted, any reference in the subsequent and amending legislation of section 8 of the Road Traffic Act 2014 is, based on the legal advice I have, erroneous and seeks to evoke provisions which have not yet been commenced. This, again, is identified as a simple legislative error. The legal advice available to me suggests it is open to considerable challenge. Obviously, we will have to wait and see how that plays out in due course.

In conclusion, while we accept the legislation and will support it, we are concerned that the retrospective nature of the Bill is open to significant challenge. Obviously, at a later stage, it may prove impossible to endorse the points to which this legislation seeks to give legislative foundation. If that happens, I guess there is nothing that can be done about it, other than that we will have to accept it and move on. However, it will mark a stark blow to the whole structure of our penalty points system and the integrity that surrounds that. If that happens, we will have to deal with it. The Government and the Minister will have to be far more imaginative in the way they resource the Garda Síochána, as I said at the outset. Perhaps if they can deal with that, it will help to address whatever fallout emerges from the mistake that has occurred in this instance.

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