Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and the Bill. As other colleagues said, it is very technical. I hope it will streamline the system in dealing with a lot of issues which end up in the courts and consume a huge amount of Garda time that could be avoided. I welcome the third payment option, whereby if a person does not pay the fine when a summons is issued, he or she can do so without having to go to court, provided it is paid within seven days of the court hearing.

Another issue in the public domain is the collection of fines. It is an area in which a lot of ground needs to be made up. I know that there are cases in which proceedings have gone ahead that should not have because there is a major question mark over the fixed-charge notices in not having been served, but there are still a huge number of fines and a large amount of moneys outstanding on fines that have been imposed. There are people who are law abiding and comply with the rules of the road, but there are others who do not and are fined and the fines are not collected. The Minister of State might set out how it is proposed to deal with this issue. I understand the amount of money outstanding is quite substantial; it is money that could be used for a lot of things, including road safety measures and other initiatives that could help to make the roads safer. It is important that we make sure where a fine is imposed that it is collected and the person concerned pays the penalty for the offence committed.