John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Why are the amendment's paragraphs (ii) and (iii) not in place already? It is a simple matter of administration in terms of people knowing who was before the courts, what the conviction was and then taking the appropriate action to ensure that the licence is endorsed or that it is known for any future event that the individual was in court previously.

Deputy Broughan's amendment is common sense. When one compares it to what is going on at present, I think of the case of the late Shane O'Farrell, information about which is in the public domain. Every system in the courts failed in relation to that young man's death and the investigation which followed was simply appalling. The trauma for that family continues to this day. They seek justice from this House in relation to an inquiry, and I support them. Had procedure and administration been followed in that case, it would have been known that the driver concerned had a list of convictions. It strikes me that if those convictions had been properly put up on PULSE, all the information would have been available to the judge in court in that case.

I would have thought that what we are asking now would have been there anyway in the context of the administration of justice and the monitoring and management of PULSE. The case I highlighted, which the Minister should look at, shows the chaotic system that exists at present which does not serve the citizen well. In Shane O'Farrell's case, his death was not appropriately investigated. Had it been, it would have shown the weaknesses in the current system of administration in the courts and how an individual can get away with continuing to drive after being convicted of a very serious offence. In fact, in that case, they were not even able to produce the PULSE records properly.

The type of information that is being requested here to be shared should be shared anyway. Whatever the steps needed to learn from the case of the death of Shane O'Farrell and what is contained in the amendment's paragraphs (ii) and (iii), we could learn a lot from merely reading the papers on that case and insisting that the current arrangement that is in place be made more effective while we are waiting for an amendment like this through this legislation to be put in place. The way things operate at present is unacceptable.

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