Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his considered responses. I will take the response to amendment No. 15 first.Being fined is not a problem for people who are very wealthy. In some cases the fines are paid by corporate companies. There are not many people for whom it is not an issue but there are those who just pass the buck down the road. It may be a company vehicle, somebody else's vehicle or they do not have a problem paying the fine. One clear thing to be sure of is that if we give people penalty points and they accumulate the maximum number they will be off the road.

The Minister is not going to support this. I am asking the Minister to support introducing a regime and system that would put off the road people who are deliberately and willingly going out and taking advantage of pay and display areas without a pay and display permit, which is a totally illegal activity. The Minister is not prepared to take a heavy hand with them and stand in solidarity. That is what I am taking from what the Minister has said. He is open to respond and counteract this if he feels I am misrepresenting him in any way. My takeaway is that he is not prepared to put these people off the road. People accumulate fine after fine. My local authority uses parking fines. People accumulate them and they just keep paying them. I got into a truck the other day with perhaps 50 fines thrown on the floor. That is terrible. The Minister is not supportive at this point in time. I have been touch with him about this twice. I have raised this as a matter in the House twice. Does the Minister accept that a penalty point system would put people off the road eventually? This is the reality of it. I know it. I do not think the Minister has any difficulty in accepting it because it is the fact. People get fine after fine.

I do not support the Minister's proposal. I will pursue this today because it is important to do so. I thank the Minister for his response and his engagement. He has the power to support the amendment and recommend its support in the House. It is ultimately a decision for the House to support this amendment, which would put people off the road if they took advantage of this situation. This is what I am asking for and I would like to hear the Minister's response. With regard to amendment No. 75, I fully accept what the Minister has said. He has set it out very well. It has been a learning curve for me. I fully accept the advice of the Minister's officials that it would not be the right to do because the penalty would be reduced. At present after a certain stage in the process there is the possibility of imprisonment. I accept this and I am happy to withdraw amendment No. 75. I will pursue amendment No. 15 but I would like to hear the response of the Minister.