Minister Fitzgerald welcomes Garda clampdown on failure to present driving licenses in Court

Monday 22 June 2015

Frances Fitzgerald TD, Minister for Justice & Equality, has welcomed plans
by An Garda Síochána to commence prosecutions for the failure to present
driving licenses in Court.

The Minister has expressed concerns at latest figures indicating that a
large proportion of person coming before the Courts on road traffic
offences were not presenting their licences in Court and in many cases
thereby not receiving penalty points.

An Garda Síochána will shortly commence prosecutions, starting at multiple
locations nationwide, targeting person not presenting their licences in
Court which is an offence under road traffic legislation.

Minister Fitzgerald stated: “It is essential that our Road Traffic Laws are
both respected and enforced.

“Enforcement and prosecution of offences in this area is critical to public
safety and to reducing deaths on our roads.

“There must be no way-out for anybody seeking to avoid getting penalty
points and I welcome the initiative by An Garda Síochána to commence
prosecutions for failure to present driving licences in court.”

Ends…/

Notes for Editors:
Figures provided by the Court Service indicate that in 2014 there were
21,709 persons convicted under the Road Traffic Act of a Penalty Point
offence. However, only 8,059 persons had their Driver Licence Number
recorded on the Criminal Case Tracking System (CCTS).  The penalty points
are notified to the National Vehicle and Driver File and assigned to the
relevant driver record in all cases where driving licence details are
supplied.  Where a driving licence number is not recorded penalty points
are assigned through a process of matching with other available
identification information. It is not always possible to achieve a match
and in these cases penalty points are not assigned to individual driving
licence records.

It is an offence under section 22 of the Road Traffic Act 2002 (as amended)
to fail to produce your licence and in such instances the general penalties
provided for in section 102 of the Road Traffic Act 1961 (as amended)
apply. These penalties provide for up to €1,000 for first offence rising to
€2,000 on second and subsequent offences, and/or up to 3 months
imprisonment for third and subsequent offences within a 12 month period.
The penalty applied on conviction in any particular instance is a matter
for the judge to determine.

In addition to the Garda initiatives, as part of the ongoing examination of
this issue the Criminal Justice (Fixed Charge Processing System) Working
Group is studying other possible measures to assist with the association of
driving licence details with penalty points.