Robert Dowds (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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Question 628: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the reason persons who appeal the imposition of penalty points on their licence receive an automatic doubling of the number of penalty points imposed on them in the event that they fail in their appeal. [18251/11]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The penalty points system has been designed and structured to ensure that any person who is accused of the commission of a penalty point offence is afforded a significant time period to choose whether or not to allow the matter to proceed to court. One of the main purposes of introducing the system was to relieve the administrative burden on the courts. Persons accused of committing certain road traffic offences were offered the incentive of paying a fixed charge and accepting a reduced number of penalty points rather than a court appearance.

For 61 of the 69 offences determined to be penalty points offences in the Road Traffic Act 2002, the accused person is given the option of the payment of a fixed charge together with accepting a reduced number of penalty points. A person presented with a fixed charge notice is given a period of 56 days in which to make such a payment and accept the reduced number of penalty points. Once a fixed charge notice has been paid, the offence cannot be subsequently contested in the Courts. Where a fixed charge notice is not paid, the matter will be dealt with by the Courts and the full number of points, as prescribed by the 2002 Act, will be applied upon conviction.