Only one driver got penalty points overturned

Just one driver succeeded in having her penalty points overturned on foot of two loopholes in the regime last that placed a question mark over 200,000 penalty points issued between August and November 2014.

The woman, who accrued six penalty points in quick succession and was facing a six-month driving ban, having reached 12 points, applied to the courts to overturn the points before the Minister for Transport introduced legislation to retrospectively correct the loopholes.

After her court challenge the woman had her licence returned.

According to the department, this driver was the only motorist who had penalty points overturned because of the loophole.

The Government was forced to rush emergency legislation through the Dáil the week before Christmas after two flaws were discovered in the Road Traffic Act 2014.

The first was an error in the wording of the Act that effectively removed the authority for penalty points to be added to a driver’s licence.

The second error meant that certain offences due to become punishable by penalty points through the fixed-charge notice system in 2014, including using a vehicle without a valid NCT certificate and parking in a dangerous position, were not in force because a clause excluding these actions from list of penalty-point offences had not been removed from earlier legislation.

The errors affected 200,000 points issued to 74,000 motorists between August and November 2014.

A spokesman for the department said just six of these points were not applied to a licence due to the loopholes.

The legislation to correct the errors was retrospective, and at the time of its introduction Minister for Transport Paschal Donohoe said he was confident it would withstand legal challenge.

According to the department there was only legal case relating to the errors in the Road Traffic Act 2014.