David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A few things arise. The option of registering the post was considered. It was felt that it would not improve the payment rate significantly, as many people would be reluctant to accept or call to the post office for a registered letter if they believed it contained a fixed-charge notice. Just because it is registered does not mean that people have to accept it, if they think there is something in it that they do not want. They can say they do not want it and send it back.

In addition, a delivered registered letter does not prove that the person named received the notice and the offender still has the option of claiming that he or she never received the notice. Someone else in the house might sign for it and the person could say he or she never got it and we are back to where we started again. There is no proof that it is going to significantly improve matters.

Personal service of the document is the only means that one can guarantee proof of service on an alleged offender. That is something that happens in other jurisdictions where there is a summons service and things like that. An additional legislative provision, Part 3 of the Road Traffic Act which will be commenced, provides that where a summons is served in respect of a fixed-charge offence, evidence that a fixed-charge notice was not served shall not be a defence to the alleged offence. Part 3 further provides that service of a fixed-charge notice may be executed by posting or delivering it to the address inside or outside the State at which the person ordinarily resides which, at the time of the alleged offence, the person gave to the detecting garda or at which the vehicle is registered.

If a vehicle is registered at a certain address, that is where it will be sent. That is where the person is more than likely to be living, and it is posted to that address. In addition, it is also provided that in any proceedings in respect of a fixed-charge notice, a document purporting to be a certificate or receipt of posting or delivery issued by An Post or another postal service is admissible in evidence as proof of the posting or delivery, as in the case of a fixed-charge notice, until the contrary is shown. What we are saying is that we acknowledging that there are difficulties up to now. That is why we are doing this, but this third option will really improve matters. Hopefully it will. The only other option is the serving of summonses personally to people by a summons server of some sort. I am sure the Senator will appreciate that would be a very difficult thing to do and be quite expensive.

To repeat, people can decide not to accept a registered letter if they feel there will be bad news in it, and someone else can sign for a registered letter and the person can still say that they never got it. Registering the letter was properly examined and it would not improve matters enormously. We feel this option would bring matters up to where we want them to be.