Donohoe wants increase in road traffic enforcement

Minister for Transport Paschal Donohoe says he is unhappy with the current level of road traffic policing and wants the strength of the Garda Traffic Corps boosted. While not linking this to the rising trend of fatalities from road collisions, he believes road traffic enforcement needs to increase.

He says gardaí are doing a good job with the resources available but stressed that “as the number of gardaí grow [as training resumes], I believe it is imperative that the resources made available to the Traffic Corps grow.” The current strength of the Traffic Corps is about 800, about a third lower than its peak.

“Enforcement, and the perception that enforcement will happen, is critical to road safety. I believe the level of enforcement needs to increase. We are in a different economy to where we were two years ago. I have met the Garda Commissioner and raised the issue with her regarding resourcing within the Traffic Corps.”

Last year saw the number of road fatalities rise by six to 196. Of particular concern to the Minister is the increase in the number of pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, killed. The big picture is that an eight-year period of falling road deaths came to an end in 2013.

While road safety group Parc believes a fall-off in Garda enforcement over a number of years is the main reason for the increase in road fatalities, the Minister’s view is “there is no single reason”. He points to an overall increase in road use as the economy recovers and changing travel patterns as factors, saying a renewed focus on protecting vulnerable road users is needed.

The focus on road safety was heightened last week by the deaths of four young women in a collision near Athy, Co Kildare.

“Every life lost on our roads is one too many. This tragic incident has had a devastating impact on the communities touched by it, highlighting the continuing need for us all to make our roads as safe as possible in 2015 and beyond.”

Donohoe says there are a number of problems with the penalty points system, the credibility of which has been damaged by recent controversies including gardaí cancelling points, legal challenges to points issued by Go Safe speed cameras and drivers not getting points in court. Parc has described the system as a "shambles".

Donohoe says that while the system is effective, the volume of points issued – up to 80,000 a month – means “problems will and have emerged”.

In relation to recent judicial decisions to quash speeding notices generated by Go Safe, the Minister says the view is that the legal basis for the use of privatised speed cameras is “robust and we are not planning to change the legislation”.

One area of frustration is the low rate of licence surrender by those disqualified, which he describes as "a really significant problem". Since 2004, fewer than half of the 2,247 drivers disqualified surrendered their licence. Responsibility for ensuring this was handed from local authorities to the Road Safety Authority in 2014 and the situation has improved, with about 75 per cent of licences now surrendered.

Other issues include drivers arguing in court that they did not receive the postal notification of their points, resulting in a significant number of cases being struck out. Even when convicted, a driver can still evade points by not bringing their licence to court. According to the Courts Service, 21,154 drivers escaped penalty points in the 18 months to last June in this way.

Then there is the sheer volume of penalty points cases appearing before the courts, placing a huge strain on the Courts Service and gardaí required to prosecute the cases. A large proportion of penalty points cases are as a result of drivers not getting around to paying the fine with a relatively small group choosing to to challenge the points in court.

Currently a driver has two 28-day periods in which to pay a fine (which doubles after the first period) and accept points. If they fail to pay their fine after 56 days, a summons is automatically issued. In a bid to address this issue, the Minister is planning to give motorists a third chance to pay and accept the points before their case is referred to court. Donohoe says funding for this project was secured before Christmas and he hopes this option will be available within two years.

Many of problems with the penalty points system are a consequence of the multi-agency and multi-IT system nature of road traffic law enforcement that requires co-ordination between two departments, the Garda and Courts Service and a number of agencies.

Donohoe plans to meet Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald in the coming weeks to discuss how penalty points cases are handled in the courts. “While I respect the independence of the judiciary, at the same time we are talking about an offence and not producing your licence in court is an offence. I have two objectives around fixed-charge notices and how penalty points are discharged. One is the credibility of the regime, the other is creating an opportunity for as much of this work as possible to be done before it has to go to court.”

Donohoe is preparing two pieces of legislation for Cabinet in the coming weeks. One of these will provide for the introduction of roadside drug testing. The second aims to close a loophole that arose on December 1st which means an Irish driving licence holder, banned from the roads in Britain, is now free to drive here again and vice versa.

This is because an agreement allowing for the mutual recognition of driving disqualifications between the Republic and Britain has lapsed. The Minister is drawing up a bilateral agreement to reinstate joint disqualifications as soon as possible.