Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 410: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if the new hand held units issued to gardaí on traffic duty permit access to previous penalty points issued to individuals; and if this information is available through the PULSE system or the national driver files. [7851/06]

Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 411: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if the Garda PULSE system records speeding penalty points. [7852/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 410 and 411 together.

Penalty points are assigned to the driving licence record in the national driver file by the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government on receipt of information from the Garda Síochána indicating that a fixed charge notice attracting penalty points has been paid or from the Courts Service following the outcome of court proceedings.

Information on the number of penalty points attaching to a driving licence is not available to the Garda Síochána through the PULSE system or on the hand-held units used by gardaí on traffic duty. However, I am advised by the Garda authorities that initial discussions have taken place with the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government on the technical aspects of the Garda Síochána obtaining data electronically on driver disqualifications. Those licence holders reaching 12 penalty points represent a sub-set of this data.