The Government is to be commended for its penalty points initiative. For years the issue of road safety brought forth the usual bank holiday campaigns but little in the way of active reform.
The current administration, and the Minister for Transport in particular, has pushed forward the points system for several offences and more are in the pipeline. However, for the system to be successful it must have public support and be adjudged to be fair. The need for public respect for the rules of the road was recognised by Mr Brennan in May when he called on local authorities to review speed limits in 43 locations. He warned that unrealistically low speed limits brought the whole regime into disrepute and said that for people to respect speed limits they must have confidence in them and believe that they are sensible.
A similar principle must apply to the implementation of the penalty points scheme, the very foundation of the current road safety strategy. The system was created not to punish drivers but to make them more aware and, with two points on their licence, to be more careful on the roads. However, with current delays of up to one month in the delivery of point notifications, motorists can effectively learn their lessons too late, as in the case of the Dublin motorist who spoke to The Irish Times this week after incurring 12 points before she found out about the first offence.
The delay is being blamed on the current manual processing system, which is due to be replaced later this year with a new computer system. However, this system was first mooted in the 1998 Road Safety Strategy and was supposed to be introduced in line with penalty points. When points were introduced in October 2002, the Minister stated that the computer system would be operational by the middle of this year. At present only a pilot scheme is running and the full operation is dependent on the passing of the current Road Traffic Bill, due before the Oireachtas this autumn. Speaking in June, Mr Brennan referred to the desired effect of the points scheme as "changing driver behaviour". "The consequences of losing a licence becomes a reality for drivers who have incurred points and they think twice before committing further breaches which will put them closer to the 12 point threshold," he said.
Clearly he intends penalty points to be a corrective measure rather than a punitive one. Yet if the system fails to operate within an acceptable timeframe, motorists do not learn the lesson until it is too late. This makes a mockery of the points system and damages support for a measure that if operated properly will save lives.