Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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147. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the general process by which a summons to court is worded in relation to road traffic penalty point offences; if the wording is drafted by prosecuting gardaí and signed off by the Courts Service or if the summons is drafted by the Courts Service and signed off by An Garda Síochána; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42236/15]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I am informed by the Garda authorities that in the first instance an offence wording is created by An Garda Síochána. Following approval by the DPP, the approval details are forwarded to the Court Services for offence coding and returned to An Garda Síochána for uploading onto the Garda PULSE system. This then allows a member of An Garda Síochána to apply for a summons by imputing the specific offence code assigned to the particular offence in respect of which they are creating the summons for.

The issue of summonses is regulated by Rules of Court. Order 15 of the District Court Rules as amended defines the format and procedure for the issue of summonses alleging offences and includes the issue of summonses for road traffic offences including penalty point offences. The specific format of summons is defined in Forms 15.1 and 15.2 of Schedule B to the Rules depending on whether the summons is being issued on application by a Judge of the District Court or on application to an appropriate office within the meaning of Section 1(14) of the Courts (No 3) Act 1986 as amended. The relevant Rules and Schedules are available on the Court Service website www.courts.ie.