Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Senator for raising this issue and empathise with him in reflecting on the carnage on our roads, particularly in County Donegal last weekend. We all agree road safety is a matter of great public concern. Departments and agencies which are responsible for dealing with road safety issues are extremely aware of the urgent necessity of bringing about a steady reduction in the numbers killed and seriously injured on our roads. Government policy in this area is set out in the road safety strategy for the period from 2004 to 2006.

Speeding offences and other breaches of road traffic legislation are detected in a number of ways by police forces. Broadly speaking, they are detected either by an intercept or non-intercept. An intercept takes place when a police officer stops the transgressing motorist. In respect of speeding, this is done in the majority of cases when the infringement has been detected by technological means. A non-intercept detection always occurs by technological means.

To refer to a driver as a "Northern" driver or a "Southern" driver can mean a number of things. It can refer either to where the driver's car is registered or the jurisdiction in which his or her driving licence was issued. Upon interception by a garda or police officer, a driver is asked to produce his or her licence. If the garda or police officer decides to pursue the matter, he or she issues the driver with a fixed charge notice. Under our road traffic legislation, the driver has the option of paying the fixed charge within 56 days, with payment after 28 days incurring an increase of 50% in the fixed charge payable. However, the driver may decide not to pay and so allow his or her case to proceed to a court hearing, as he or she has a constitutional entitlement to do. By the time a case has reached this stage, a Northern driver detected in this jurisdiction or vice versa will in the vast majority of cases have returned to his or her own jurisdiction.

A case proceeds to court by means of a summons issued by the Garda. The difficulty arises when the driver resides outside the State. Drivers with foreign addresses who choose not to pay the fixed charge are identified during the process of summons application. The matter of issuing summonses to such drivers was referred to the DPP by the Garda fixed penalty office. The DPP advised that the prosecution of such offenders should not proceed as service of summons was unlikely.

The position with non-intercept detections, where the driver is not stopped, also causes difficulties. With regard to EU member states, I understand from the Department of Transport that the European Commission is preparing proposals for access to the vehicle files of other member states.

In summary, drivers who are detected speeding are served a fixed charge notice, which gives them the option of up to 56 days to pay. By this stage the driver is almost certainly back in his or her own jurisdiction. If the driver has not paid after 56 days, a courts summons is issued. Legal advice is that summonses should not be issued to drivers with foreign addresses.

The Senator is correct in pointing to the difficulties which arise when drivers from outside the jurisdiction are detected speeding. However, Article 34 of the Constitution provides that "justice shall be administered in courts established by law by judges appointed in the manner provided by this Constitution". Any decision of a court in Northern Ireland in cases such as these would, therefore, not be enforceable in this jurisdiction and I understand the situation is similar in Northern Ireland. It would be a significant development to provide for the enforceability in this jurisdiction of decisions of non-domestic courts without any involvement by the domestic courts.

With regard to paying fixed charges, the position in reality is that drivers only pay these because they are backed by the threat of a court summons if they are not paid. A person resident in this jurisdiction who ignores the decision of a court or the issue of a fixed charge notice in another jurisdiction could be laying himself or herself open to serious consequences.

A more promising way of approaching this problem may be by means of mutual recognition of penalty points. Penalty points are applied to the driving licence records of drivers in respect of a number of offences, including speeding. A separate system, which differs from that in Northern Ireland, operates in Britain and there is no mutual recognition between the two systems. Accordingly, where a driver who holds a Northern Ireland licence commits a penalty point offence in Britain, the points cannot be recorded on that licence.

Where a driver with a foreign licence is detected committing a penalty point offence in this jurisdiction, it is not possible to record penalty points as no entry exists in our national driver file for that driver. The question of providing for a system of mutual recognition of penalty points is being pursued by the British-Irish Council in view of the differences between the systems in this jurisdiction, Northern Ireland and Britain. The Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland is the lead agency for transport issues under the British-Irish Council and it has recently prepared a paper on this subject. I understand the Department of Transport, which is the Department responsible for this matter, has referred the matter to the Attorney General for his advice, given the complex legal issues involved.

I will advise the Minister for Transport of the serious concerns expressed by the Senator and will ask that this issue be pursued more vigorously.