Penalty point legislation to be rushed through Dáil

MARY MINIHAN

Emergency legislation is to be introduced next week to close two loopholes in penalty point laws which have placed a question mark more than 200,000 points issued since August.

The move comes after two flaws were discovered in the Road Traffic Act 2014 which have prompted fears of legal challenges.

The first issue relates to an error in the wording of the Act which effectively removes the authority to add points to a driver’s licence. This means there is now a legal question mark over all points issued since August this year.

A second error in the same Act means certain offences which recently became punishable by penalty points through the fixed charge notice system, including using a vehicle without a valid NCT certificate and parking in a dangerous position, were not in force because a clause excluding these from list of penalty point offences had not been removed from previous legislation.

Minister for Transport Paschal Donohoe has insisted he is confident retrospective penalty point legislation will be able to withstand legal challenges after loopholes were discovered in existing law.

Mr Donohoe said he accepted responsibility for technical errors which meant points had not been fully applied to licences since August because the Road Traffic Act 2014, introduced then, failed to reference previous legislation.

“In relation to the scale of it, there are 74,000 people who have received penalty points since August 1st through the payment of fixed charge notices. This affects over 200,000 penalty points,” he said.

A spokesman for the Department confirmed the issue affected over 78,000 people. Mr Donohoe also confirmed 49 people had lost their licences due to the accumulation of penalty points since August 1st. The majority of points relate to speeding offences.

The Minister plans to rush amended legislation through the Dáil next week ahead of the recess on Thursday [December 18th], with his Opposition counterparts suggesting legal challenges were inevitable.

Mr Donohoe conceded there was a “very significant issue” in relation to the application of penalty points but said it did not relate to the enforcement of points.

“We are at the point in which the driver has accepted they committed an offence. They have done that by accepting their penalty points and they have said that they will pay the fine.

“It is after that we then get the issue of the application of the penalty points, and that is the issue that we have here and that is what I’m responding to.”

Mr Donohoe conceded it was likely that motorists would consider legal challenges. However, he said the Attorney General had provided advice and he believed that the fresh legislation would be “legally robust” enough to withstand any potential challenge.

“I am very much aware that one of the most challenged pieces of legislation in our entire country is road traffic legislation. And I think it is likely that people will consider it but if they do and it goes to court I am absolutely confident that the amending bill that I am bringing in will withstand any challenge,” he said.

Mr Donohoe also revealed another mistake that had occurred when the Road Traffic Act 2014 did not amend a provision in the 2002 legislation which excluded certain offences from the fixed charge system.

Using a vehicle without a valid NCT certificate and parking in a dangerous position were classified as offences this year, but the 2002 Act was not amended to remove those offences from the listed exclusion.

He confirmed all other relevant sections of road traffic law were being examined to ensure no other loopholes existed.

Fianna Fail transport spokesman Timmy Dooley said: "I believe there is a real chance the legislation as proposed will be challenged and it is not at all certain at the moment that it will stand up to that scrutiny."

Sinn Féin's Dessie Ellis described the development as a "disaster" which could provide "a way out" for some of those who had committed motoring offences.