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Dempsey must fix penalty points chaos

Issued : Monday 8 February, 2010

The report today indicating that almost 18,000 reckless drivers have got away without a single penalty point being applied to their licence, is indicative of the incompetence at the highest level in the Dept of Transport.

Yet again we see where Transport Minister Noel Dempsey has lot the plot, rendering our road safety laws virtually useless in many instances. As a result we have a situation where drivers found to have broken the law are getting away with it, without sanction.

This problem first emerged in 2003, and the fact that are still waiting for legislation to remedy it, highlights Noel Dempsey's inability to get to grips with his job and his responsibilities.

I also believe that the Courts Service should clarify precisely what their role in this is and whether there are steps that they could take by way of remedy.

It's not as if this is the first time that problems with the penalty points have come to light. Last year for example we saw where 192,686 drivers (31%) did not have their licenses endorsed for committing an offence.

The majority of these drivers do not hold Irish driving licenses and I have asked the Minister on a number of occasions to examine the use of the National Vehicle Driver File (NVDF) to record and address all motoring misdemeanours committed by drivers on Irish roads.

In addition, Minister Dempsey also seems to have made little progress at EU level on the mutual recongnition of penalty points.

This indicates the urgent necessity to bring the Road Traffic Bill before the Dail. The Minister must now urgently address all of these unacceptable anomalies in the penalty points system.