Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Concerns were raised about this section in the context of the equivalent provision in the licenceholder system and then in pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme of the Bill. The issue of points being removed where the master is found not guilty in criminal proceedings in respect of the infringement was raised. This proposal would involve both systems being interlinked. They would not stand alone from each other. There would be separate systems involving separate standards of proof between the points and the criminal prosecution. That would lead to confusion and conflation of evidence and render evidence inadmissible. In addition, the legal advice is clear that points, under EU regulation, are intended as additional to criminal prosecution. Accordingly, it could not be argued that Ireland has both criminal and points systems, as required under EU regulation, if we were to operate the system in a manner whereby the criminal proceedings completely eclipsed the points system and therefore made it redundant.

For those reasons I cannot accept the amendment.