Pat Gallagher (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

I am dealing, first of all, with amendment No. 93 in the name of Senator Paddy Burke. It proposes that a new section, section 55A, be inserted in the Road Traffic Act 1961 to provide that a person shall not park a vehicle whose weight exceeds a maximum permitted weight and to specify the penalties to apply on conviction on the grounds of a contravention of the parking prohibition. The present position is that in respect of the use of a vehicle or a combination of vehicles on a public road, the Minister for Transport has regulated under section 12 of the Road Traffic Act 1961, specifying the maximum permitted unladen weight, the maximum permitted laden weight and the maximum permitted weight to be transmitted to ground by any part of a vehicle. It is an offence for any person to contravene the permitted maximum weights prescribed by the Minister. If he or she is not the owner of the vehicle, such owner and the person shall each be guilty of an offence. A section 12 contravention is scheduled to be a penalty point offence.

The offence of using a vehicle that exceeds the maximum permitted weight in any of the circumstances regulated for is scheduled in the First Schedule to the Road Traffic Act 2002 to attract one penalty point on payment of a fixed charge and three penalty points on conviction in court. Amendment No. 98 in the name of Senator Brian Hayes relates to the First Schedule to the Road Traffic Act 2002, which sets out the offences to which penalty points can be applied and proposes a change as regards the existing provision in respect of offences under section 12 of the Road Traffic Act 1961. At present the three offences under section 12 of the Act of using a vehicle that exceeds the maximum permitted rate are scheduled to attract two penalty points on payment of a fixed charge and three penalty points on conviction in court. Senator Brian Hayes proposes in this amendment two penalty points and a charge or four penalty points on conviction in court. We both agree and accept the principle. We both agree that it should be two penalty points on payment of a fixed charge and otherwise three penalty points, whereas Senator Brian Hayes says it should be four penalty points. In line with the principle involved, I believe that the three penalty points will be effective.