Gay Mitchell (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 449: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the reason Deputy Mitchell has not received a substantive reply to Question No. 433 of 11 November 2003; if the Minister is now in a position to answer this question; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4583/04]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The matter raised by the Deputy is an operational matter for the Garda Síochána and, as such, I have no role in relation to it. However, I have had inquiries made and am informed by the Garda authorities that there was a delay of just over a month from the time the payment was received by cheque on 25 July 2003 to the date the cheque was submitted for clearance. I understand that once the cheque cleared, the Garda authorities transmitted the records onto the Department of the Environment which then, in turn, notified the driver that the penalty points would be notified to his licence for a three year period with effect from four weeks from that date, as required by sections 5 and 7 of the Road Traffic Act 2002.

The Deputy will appreciate that the penalty points system is operating on a semi-manual basis. This will be rectified later this year when the fixed charge processing system becomes operational. The Deputy will agree that the benefits of the considerable advances in road safety achieved in the period since the introduction of penalty points outweigh the regrettable delays resulting from the operation of the interim manual system.