Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will provide the evidence to the appropriate body but I am asking the Minister to request that the Garda Inspectorate immediately review all terminations of penalty points in 2015. In January, the GPSU completed its audit, which examined the issue of statutory exemptions of emergency vehicles that allowed members of the Garda Síochána to avoid penalty points. It considered both the latter and the issue of an evader unit. I am asking the Minister to immediately ask the Garda Inspectorate to review all terminations of penalty points based on statutory exemption of emergency vehicles to ensure they are terminated properly. I will not name the senior garda I mentioned; he is a superintendent and has had three terminations of penalty points. He was listed for eight separate offences and I do not see any evidence he has accepted or been issued with penalty points for any of those. On three occasions prior to 2015, he had penalty points terminated at different locations across Ireland. He has also had penalty points terminated in 2015. I am pretty certain he did not incur those in the pursuit of somebody involved in criminality. I am happy to co-operate with the Garda Inspectorate and pass on the evidence I have on the superintendent in question. That garda has had penalty points terminated on four separate occasions since 2009 and possibly more on which summonses were not issued when he should have gone to court and faced the appropriate charges. If the Minister is so confident there is nothing to fear, will she ask for the Garda Inspectorate to be immediately allowed access to the PULSE system to review all terminations in 2015 made on the basis of statutory exemption of emergency vehicles to make sure every one was in order and occurred when a garda was in pursuit of a criminal. We would all accept it is absolutely fine to have penalty points terminated in those circumstances. Those are the issues.

I ask the Minister to show evidence of how she or a predecessor have accepted and implemented the recommendations made by the Garda Inspectorate over a number of years. The particular focus tonight is on penalty points.

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