 |
A penalty points system has been in operation since 2002 for regulatory offences relating to driving licences in the Republic of Ireland. [1] More serious driving offences are not included in the penalty points system but result in automatic driving bans or imprisonment. [2] After controversy about alleged flaws in the implementation, an Independent Oversight Authority was established in 2015 to make annual reports on its operation. [3]
Penalty points lapse after three years; a total of 12 points accrued will trigger a six-month driving ban. [1] For learner drivers and novice drivers, the limit is 7 points. [1] Since December 2014, 62 offences incur points: fixed-charge penalty offences incur 1–3 points, and offences requiring mandatory court appearance incur 3–5 points on conviction. [4]
Offences are detected by the Garda Síochána, or notified to the Garda by a private company operating speed camera vans. [5] [6] Notices are issued through the post by the Road Safety Authority, which also publishes monthly statistics of notices. [7] Points are not recorded on the physical licence document, but on a database maintained by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, which is linked to the Garda's Pulse computer system. [1] The fine is charged at the standard rate if paid within 28 days of the notice being issued, and at a 50% higher rate for the next 28 days. [8] After this, court proceedings are begun. [8] One can also appeal a fixed-charge penalty in court, but if the appeal fails an extra 2 points are incurred and the fine is doubled. [4] The Comptroller and Auditor General's 2013 report found that 71% of fixed charge notice fines were paid within the 56 days; 22% resulted in court proceedings; 5% were terminated; and 2% had "other outcomes". [9] Half of court cases were struck out because the summons had not been properly served, [10] often where the car was registered to a company rather than a private individual, or because of flaws with the registered address. [11] Some judges have struck out cases involving the privately operated speed cameras, blaming gaps in the chain of evidence. [12]
The British–Irish Council and competent authorities in the various Irish and UK jurisdictions are planning to implement mutual recognition of penalty points across both countries. [1] [13] The European Convention on Driving Disqualifications is already implemented for court-order disqualifications. [13]
The Road Traffic Act 2002 first provided for penalty points and for fixed-charge penalties, replacing an earlier system of on-the-spot fines. [1] [14] [15] Originally planned for 1998, its introduction was delayed by the need to upgrade and interconnect administrative computer systems, and by opposition from rank-and-file Gardaí fearing an increased workload. [16] [17] [18] The system was introduced at a scaled-back level on 31 October 2002 for speeding offences. [19] [20] Additional offences were included within its scope in subsequent years, with 31 added in 2006. [20] [21] Seven offences listed in the 2002 Act as amended are not yet included in the points system. [23]
In 2004, a loophole came to light when Gardaí were unable to prove a posted penalty notice had been received by the driver. [24] The same year, Gardaí were issued handheld computers to automate reporting of offences. [25] In 2006, problems connecting data meant that Gardaí could report offences but not view drivers' penalty point data or confiscate licences. [26] [27] In 2009, media reported problems where drivers illegally driving with no licence would avoid accruing points. [28] The outsourcing of speed cameras began in November 2010. [29] A loophole, whereby those appealing a penalty were not obliged to bring their driving licence to court, was closed in 2012. [30] In 2015, the government said it would close a similar loophole exploited by 72% of drivers receiving summons to court. [31] In 2013, motor insurance companies were granted access the penalty points database, to encourage lower insurance premiums for careful drivers. [32]
The Department of Transport published a review of the system in June 2012, [33] [34] which was discussed by the Oireachtas joint committee that September. [35] The review influenced the Road Traffic Act 2014, which added 11 new offences to the system, to increase the penalty points for some offences, and to reduce the limit from 12 to 7 points for learner drivers and a new category of novice drivers. [36] [37] [38]
Senior Gardaí have discretionary power to annul penalty points. [39] [40] In September 2012, two Garda whistleblowers alleged that this power had been abused to annul thousands of penalties, favouring some influential people and others later involved in serious traffic accidents. [41] One of the whistleblowers resigned from the Garda in May 2013. [42]
Four technical group TDs raised the matter in the Dáil in December 2012. [43] [44] In March 2013 one of the four, Luke 'Ming' Flanagan admitted he himself had had points annulled. [45] In May, another of the four, Mick Wallace, traded allegations with Alan Shatter, the Minister for Justice, about being spared penalties at Garda discretion. [46]
An internal Garda report on the allegations was published in May 2013. [39] [47] It found that 3 of 113 officers had departed from guidelines, but found no evidence of corruption. [48] [49] The report was referred to the Garda Inspectorate and the Oireachtas for further examination. [50] The technical group TDs were critical of the Garda report for not interviewing the whistleblowers. [51]
The Comptroller and Auditor General's office also received information on the original allegations and conducted a review of the system for its 2012 report. [52] Published in September 2013, it found the rate of termination ranged across different Garda districts between 0.1% and 5.9%. [53] In January 2014, when the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee reviewed the report, it questioned the Garda commissioner, Martin Callinan, who defended the Gardaí's application of discretion. [54] [55] Callinan's argued that the whistleblowers should have raised their concerns internally, and his testimony controversially used the word "disgusting": [56] [57]
The following week the committee interviewed one of the whistleblowers in private, despite opposition from the Commissioner and from Shatter, who referred the allegations to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission. [58]
The Garda Inspectorate's review of the May 2013 report was published on 12 March 2014. [59] The report, which found widespread breaches of policy, recommended setting up a working group to manage the penalty points system, which first met on 13 March 2014. [60] In light of the report, ministers Leo Varadkar and Eamon Gilmore called on Callinan to withdraw the word "disgusting" from his previous testimony; instead of which, he unexpectedly resigned as Commissioner on 25 March 2014. [57]
In 2015, minister Fitzgerald established an Independent Oversight Authority under Matthew Deery, a retired President of the Circuit Court. [3] Deery's first annual report was published in January 2016, finding "substantial compliance" with the processes. [3] [61]
The Garda Síochána, more commonly referred to as the Gardaí or "the Guards", is the national police service of Ireland. The service is headed by the Garda Commissioner who is appointed by the Irish Government. Its headquarters are in Dublin's Phoenix Park.
A traffic ticket is a notice issued by a law enforcement official to a motorist or other road user, indicating that the user has violated traffic laws. Traffic tickets generally come in two forms, citing a moving violation, such as exceeding the speed limit, or a non-moving violation, such as a parking violation, with the ticket also being referred to as a parking citation, or parking ticket.
Alan Joseph Shatter is an Irish lawyer, author and former Fine Gael politician who served as Minister for Justice and Equality and Minister for Defence from 2011 to 2014. He was a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin South constituency from 1981 to 2002 and from 2007 to 2016.
Many countries have adopted a penalty point or demerit point system under which a person’s driving license is revoked or suspended based on the number of points they’ve accumulated over a specific period of time, points are given for traffic offenses or infringements committed by them in that period. The demerit points schemes of each jurisdiction varies. These demerit schemes are usually in addition to fines or other penalties which may be imposed for a particular offence or infringement, or after a prescribed number of points have been accumulated.
John Carthy was a 27-year-old Irish citizen with known psychiatric illnesses who was shot dead by the Garda Emergency Response Unit in controversial circumstances on 20 April 2000, after a twenty-five-hour siege at his home in Toneymore, Abbeylara, County Longford.
Capital punishment in the Republic of Ireland was abolished in statute law in 1990, having been abolished in 1964 for most offences including ordinary murder. The last person to be executed by the British state in Ireland was Robert McGladdery, who was hanged on 20 December 1961 in Crumlin Road Gaol in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The last person to be executed by the state in the Republic of Ireland was Michael Manning, hanged for murder on 20 April 1954. All subsequent death sentences in the Republic of Ireland, the last handed down in 1985, were commuted by the President, on the advice of the Government, to terms of imprisonment of up to 40 years. The Twenty-first Amendment of the constitution, passed by referendum in 2001, prohibits the reintroduction of the death penalty, even during a state of emergency or war. Capital punishment is also forbidden by several human rights treaties to which the state is a party.
Since at least the 1970s, many Irish political scandals relating to miscarriage of justice, dereliction of duty and corruption by public officials have resulted in the establishment of extra-judicial Tribunals of Enquiry, which are typically chaired by retired High-Court judges and cannot make judgements against any of the parties. Since 2004 many such scandals have been investigated by the less costly but less transparent Commissions of Investigation. Many Irish scandals, however, have not resulted in trials or public enquiries.
Two oil paintings depicting the then-Taoiseach Brian Cowen in the nude were briefly displayed in Dublin art galleries in March 2009. The response of the media, politicians and the Garda Síochána led to a sustained controversy referred to by some as Portraitgate.
Luke 'Ming' Flanagan is an Irish politician who has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Ireland for the Midlands–North-West constituency since 2014. He is an Independent, but sits in parliament with The Left in the European Parliament.
Joan Collins is an Irish Right to Change politician who has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin South-Central constituency since the 2011 general election.
The Airport Police Service (APS) is a small private police force responsible for providing general security and aviation security duties at the three state airports in Ireland: Dublin Airport, Cork Airport and Shannon Airport. The Airport Police Service was first founded in 1936 in Dublin Airport and first became "Authorised Officers" under section 15 of the Air Navigation and Transport Act 1950 for the Minister of Transport.
Adrian Donohoe was an Irish detective in the Garda Síochána based at Dundalk Garda Station in County Louth, who was fatally shot in Bellurgan on 25 January 2013 during a robbery by an armed gang of five people on a credit union. He was the first garda officer to be murdered in the line of duty since 1996, and was afforded a full state funeral.
Martin Callinan, is an Irish former Garda, who served as Garda Commissioner from 2010 to 2014.
The Garda Whistleblower Scandal involved the revelation of corruption and malpractice within Ireland's national police force, the Garda Síochána, and the subsequent mishandling of the complaints that had been made by serving members of the force.
Since 2013, allegations have surfaced that the Garda Síochána has been involved in malpractice, including allegations that members had inappropriately cancelled driving penalty points, that the offices of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) had been bugged, revelations that telephone calls at Garda stations had been recorded for decades, the case of Jerry McGrath and other allegations of serious Garda misconduct.
Nóirín O'Sullivan is an Irish Garda who has served as Director of Strategic Partnerships for Europe at the International Association of Chiefs of Police since October 2017. She previously served as Garda Commissioner from 2014 to 2017. In October 2018, Nóirín was appointed UN Assistant Secretary-General for the Department of Safety and Security.
The Witness Security Programme in Ireland is administered by the Attorney General of Ireland, and is operated by the Garda Síochána, the national police force. Witness protection in Ireland is used in cases of serious, organised crime and terrorism. The programme is under the operational control of the elite Garda Special Detective Unit (SDU), attached to the Garda Crime & Security Branch (CSB).
Pat Buckley is an Irish Sinn Féin politician who has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Cork East constituency since the 2016 general election.
The Oireachtas Golf Society scandal, also known informally as "Golfgate", was a political scandal in Ireland involving past and present members of that country's parliament, the Oireachtas, who attended a gathering of the Oireachtas Golf Society in Clifden, County Galway, on 19 August 2020.
