Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I stand in support of my colleague. It is standard practice when serving court proceedings to send them by registered post. When one goes higher up the line, to the High Court and Circuit Court, and certainly in the higher courts, one sees personal service being required. I would not subscribe to the idea that a notice sent out could be deemed to be served without any evidence having to be forthcoming. If somebody refuses a registered letter, that is known by the person who issues it. One can seek substituted service which could be serviced by ordinary post.

In the normal course, if a registered letter is signed for and it is known that the address given, and the address it has been served at, is the place the defendant would ordinarily reside, that should be sufficient to deem service on the person unless the contrary can be shown. The Minister of State is going one step further than that by saying that it is not necessary to prove it was served at all. This is why we are in this situation with summonses and letters of notification on fixed-charge penalties and people not having received them and due process not having been observed.

One cannot get away from registered post because with the sheer numbers of speeding fines and fixed-charge penalties involved, to require personal service of all these would involve an awful lot of manpower or womanpower on the part of the Garda. There should at least be a check. I am not saying it would work in every case and the Minister of State is right, people can send back registered letters, but I still think for due process and fairness, we should know every effort has been made.

If that system had been in place we would not have the problem we have with the Garda now because where a registered letter was returned by somebody who was going to get a fixed-charge notice, the next time there would be a note back from the post office saying this person had refused to accept service and seeking substituted service. There is a bit more paperwork or bureaucracy involved but in lots of cases we do not mind bureaucracy if there is accountability. It is not accountability on the part of individuals that we are talking about here but on the part of the system. It is this part of our criminal justice system that is experiencing a crisis at the moment regarding the Garda. I would have more confidence. Having been a legal practitioner, I do not understand how it has never been done by registered post, notwithstanding what the Minister of State said.Every day legal practitioners must overcome the issue of service of documents and they do so. Registered post is a very important tool. Legal practitioners can make an application for substituted service where this is not working and where they know where the person ordinarily resides. Most people who have vehicles have a fixed abode and an address. There are many ways to pin them down and verify their address. I am concerned about a presumption that people received a notification if they did not.

I welcome the third option. In certain circumstances, it would be the fairest way to go. It would keep people out of court but they would pay a fine. Obviously, this would be an increased fine but people would not have to go to court. We are trying to develop a system outside of clogging up the courts, which would be severely clogged up if all these fixed charge notices were brought before them.