Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The difference is that while penalty points for drivers are ultimately part of the criminal system, the penalty points system for fishermen is not. It is purely administrative. There is a requirement on us to have such a system within the European situation. There are appeals mechanisms but they are not in the courts. They are through determination panels, so a person can appeal, but he or she does not go to court to appeal it. That person stays within the administrative situation, so he or she is not in the criminal justice system, and that person appeals the application of penalty points to his or her licence and seeks their removal. There is that opportunity, outside of the courts and in a different appeals system, to seek leave to appeal and to have that appeal heard. There is also the opportunity within the legislation for an oral hearing. Each one of those opportunities is through the determination panel.

In parallel with this administrative system, the old criminal system will still stay in place and is still there, so if a misdemeanour or a breach of the control or the obligation to stay within the rules is so serious that the control authorities believe it merits a separate criminal charge, that can happen in parallel and can be done separately. While the penalty points administrative system will not have a criminal stream in the vast majority of instances, the two could go in parallel. There is an appeal system within the administrative system for penalty points, and that can be appealed on a point of law to a court in terms of whether the procedure was followed properly. If that point of law were to be found in favour of the fisher, then it would fall, but it would be only on a point of law that it could be appealed.