Court summons relating to road traffic offences will from next month state the requirement to bring a licence to court so penalty points can be applied on conviction.
Since 2002, more than 83,000 drivers have escaped 365,795 penalty points because they did not bring their licence to court.
Section 63 of the Road Traffic Act (2010) was introduced in October 2011 to close this loophole but had a negligible impact because the administrative work to provide for the change was not completed.
One issue was the failure to add the requirement to bring a licence to court into the wording of the summons. Just 1,368 penalty point records have been sent to the National Vehicle Driver File by the Courts Services since the law was introduced over six months ago.
However, according to the Department of Transport, this problem has been resolved and all summons issued from May 16th will state the requirement to bring a licence and a copy of the licence to court.
Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar said: “I have been concerned for some time that court summonses did not explicitly refer to the requirement to bring a driving licence to court.
“I welcome confirmation from the Courts Service that it will be implementing this requirement from this May.”
A copy of the licence is needed so a driver does not have to surrender their licence while it is being processed.
Motors who fail to bring their licence to court are liable for a fine of up to €1,000.
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