Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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10. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality her views on the recently discovered discrepancies in the application of penalty points to driving licences following convictions; if she will provide an update on the way her Department and the relevant agencies are rectifying the issue; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27077/15]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, there are a number of measures in place in relation to the association of driving licence details with penalty points. The primary purpose of Section 63 of the Road Traffic Act 2010 is to ensure that the driver licence number of individual offenders is recorded, to enable the application of the appropriate penalty points to the licence on conviction by the Court. The Courts Service notifies all penalty point convictions to the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and the points are assigned to the relevant driver record in all cases where driving licence details are supplied. Where a driving licence number is not available penalty points are assigned through a process of matching with other available information, where this is possible. In those cases where it is not possible to identify a driving licence, details of the conviction are nevertheless retained as penalty point records in relation to the individuals concerned.

I am of course concerned that recent figures indicate that a large proportion of persons, having been brought before the Courts on penalty point offences, did not present their driver licences in Court and in many cases thereby avoided having penalty points recorded on their licences.

It is an offence under the Road Traffic Act to fail to provide your licence details and, as I have recently advised the Deputy, an arrangement has been put in place between An Garda Síochána and the Courts Service to facilitate the bringing of prosecutions for the non-production of a driver licence in these circumstances. An Garda Síochána will shortly commence prosecutions at multiple locations nationwide, targeting persons not presenting their licences in Court.

I expect this will send a strong message that it is essential that our Road Traffic laws are respected and that there are consequences for the minority of persons who seek to evade them. Ultimately enforcement and prosecution of offences in this area is about improving public safety and reducing deaths on our roads, and there must be no way out for anybody seeking to avoid receiving penalty points.

I can further advise the Deputy that my Department is in ongoing and intensive contact with the other relevant agencies with a view to ensuring that the most effective system to associate penalty points with driver licences is in place. The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport and I have recently received an update from the Criminal Justice (Fixed Charge Processing System) Working Group on this matter and we have asked that further urgent consideration be given to this specific issue with a view to more detailed analysis being submitted later this year. In addition to assessing the impact of the prosecutions referred to above, this analysis will consider other means of addressing this issue, including an examination of the feasibility and means of introducing a mandatory association between driver licence details and vehicle registrations.