Cecilia Keaveney (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I am glad the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell, is present. Given that this is a road traffic issue and there has recently been a tragic double fatality on the roads of Inishowen, I extend my sympathies to the Doherty and Mullen families on the immensely sad loss of their two young daughters. Alice Mullen worked for the Minister's Department in the refugee appeals tribunal section.

In many parts of the country, issues arise in regard to untaxed cars on the roads. The non-payment of car tax is unfair on other road users given that the funding ring-fenced within county councils assists directly with the standard of road provision. A car that is not taxed illustrates that some people want roads but do not want to contribute to them, leaving an added burden on other road users. It is an issue that must be addressed given that the real number of road users in any given area can mean better services for that area; for example, a national car testing centre was sought for my area but the community was told not enough vehicles were registered to warrant the centre.

Many wonder whether a different picture would emerge, should the true number of vehicles be discovered and if all vehicles that should be taxed in the jurisdiction were taxed. In the Six Counties, there is already a system of roadside surveys of unlicensed vehicles. A study in 1998 revealed that at that time there was a level of evasion of about 10% which equated to 79,000 vehicles, and to £12 million sterling being lost to the Exchequer. Have we any idea of our rate of unlicensed vehicles? Have we done any surveys?

The Northern excise duty wheel clamping campaign in September 2001 led to 28,000 motorists voluntarily re-licensing their vehicles so that £3.2 million sterling that would otherwise have been lost was regained. To know we have a problem is one thing; to do something about it is another. It would be possible to have small campaigns or surveys carried out at local authority level if the authorities were funded to do so. In this age of cross-Border co-operation we should surely examine the system in operation for three years in Northern Ireland and learn from that experience.

In 2002, Sam Foster introduced the Stingray system in Belfast. It consisted of a new automatic number plate reading camera to detect unlicensed vehicles. It is secure and tamper-proof, can work day and night and can detect vehicles travelling in excess of 100 mph. The speed camera technology it employs works in the same manner as the speed detection vans in that the cameras are located in special vans. They are mobile and can operate from hard shoulders, bridges and so on. The camera reads the licence plate of the car and automatically and simultaneously checks it against the licensing records of the driver of the vehicle. It stores images of the cars found to be unlicensed. This photographic evidence can be presented in court in support of prosecutions.

This resource, if deployed in the Republic, would have the potential to detect road tax dodgers. It is not merely a question of the tax disc. I assume that our records can deal with the retention and recovery of information in the same way as happens in Northern Ireland. However, given that in the Republic insurance and national car test discs are also displayed on windscreens, the system has even more potential if deployed on the spot, with the unlicensed car, when detected, followed either by motorcycle or by the van itself. This could lead to the discovery of non-display of insurance details or of motorists not being insured or not in compliance with NCT requirements.

This is a different issue from the controversy we heard of this morning in which gardaí themselves said some people are picked on as soft options, namely, people driving at 35 mph being caught in a 30 mph zone, and that real road safety issues needed to be dealt with. Untaxed cars are possibly also uninsured and may not have passed the NCT, so they are a safety hazard not only to themselves but to other road users.

When I raised this issue in August 2004 with the Minister for Transport, he put the matter firmly back in the area of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform because, as he said, the enforcement of road traffic legislation was a matter for the Garda and it would be up to it if it wanted to employ such a system. He said that if it decided to do so, it would seek an amendment to the Road Traffic Act. Accordingly, I raise this issue with the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and not the Minister for Transport as the matter has already been passed back and forth between the two Departments.

North-South reciprocal arrangements need to be developed in regard to the collection of fines for all road traffic offences, particularly if Northern car owners commit offences in the Republic and vice versa. I would appreciate it if the Minister would consider my thoughts on this issue and do his best with regard to introducing a system similar to the one working successfully in Northern Ireland. There may even be a more effective system of detecting people driving on our roads untaxed, possibly uninsured and possibly not fulfilling NCT requirements. Those people might accordingly be in very dangerous vehicles, creating hazards to themselves and, just as importantly, to those they meet on the roads.

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I am grateful to Deputy Keaveney for raising this matter. I share her concern at the presence of untaxed vehicles on our roads. As she points out, honest motorists are fed up with the small hardcore who continually evade paying their road taxes. The Exchequer loses millions in revenue each year to those evaders.

I was interested to hear the Deputy say that she had raised this issue in the past with the Department of Transport and was told it was the responsibility of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. If I were circulating a script tonight, it might give the opposite impression, so I am not circulating a script. I will confine myself to taking a positive view of what the Deputy said.

Essentially, this is a number plate recognition system. I believe that in the United Kingdom it is operated by non-police personnel. It can be left deployed merely to record that a particular car passed a particular place. The fact that a car is on the road can then be relayed either for immediate or subsequent evaluation to decide whether the car was taxed. Such equipment can clearly be useful but it would depend on the equipment being interoperable with the computerised motor vehicle file system of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. It would also have to be interoperable with the summonsing method being used in the points system for speeding offences and so on.

Three Departments have a responsibility for this issue which is contiguous and which should be managed in a co-ordinated way. Rather than trying to pass the buck back, I will call on my colleagues in the Departments of Transport and the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to attempt to ensure that technology of this kind is available to the Garda Síochána.

As the Deputy knows, we are increasing Garda numbers, currently by 2,000 extra recruits. The road traffic corps will be increased from about 500 to 1,200 so that on a cumulative basis, 700 of the new recruits will be allocated to road traffic duties over the next three years. I want to ensure that those additional gardaí are on frontline policing duties and not spending their time dealing with paper work in back offices. The Garda Commissioner is in full agreement with me on this.

To get compliance in areas such as this and to save valuable Garda resources, a computerised system which is interoperable with the databases to which I referred is the appropriate way forward. I thank the Deputy for raising the matter and I intend to discuss it with the Minister for Transport, Deputy Cullen, and the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche. I will then give the Deputy a considered response regarding the logistical implications of mirroring in this State the system which operates in Northern Ireland and in other parts of the United Kingdom. I hope that the initiative the Deputy has taken in drawing this technological possibility to my attention will not be wasted for want of co-ordination between the three responsible Departments.