Quarter of points not applicable

THE RATE of cases of motorists escaping penalty points is rising by almost 2 per cent annually, and now represents more than a quarter of all penalty points issued, according to latest figures.

Figures from the Road Safety Authority, which cover the first half of 2009 to the end of June, show 26.2 per cent of all points issued were not applied to a driver’s licence, compared to 25.4 per cent for the six months to December 2008 and 24.17 per cent for the period to the end of June 2008.

The causes of non-applicable penalty points are largely attributed to cars registered outside the State and drivers holding foreign driving licences.

It has also emerged that new machines being deployed by the Garda, which can instantly check if a car is taxed or insured as well as whether the registered owner is “of interest to gardaí”, are rendered ineffective when faced with a foreign registration.

The Road Safety Authority (RSA) said the numbers are a “real and serious difficulty” because of differing legislation between states and even between Northern Ireland and Britain, where the tariff of offences may be different and employ a different scale of demerit points.

There is also a problem of access to the database of drivers in other countries. Brian Farrell, RSA communications manager, said the issue is “the Holy Grail” of the penalty points system.

However, Fine Gael transport spokesman Fergus O’Dowd said the figures show the growth in the number of drivers “immune” from penalty points is “far greater than had been believed”. He called on the Department of Transport to come up with a solution.

Figures for non-applicable penalty points released on the RSA website are heading towards one-third of all penalty points. “It is clearly a cause for great concern,” he said.

A Garda souce told The Irish Timesthe issue is a significant problem for enforcement.

The source cited the lack of information on foreign-registered cars as the “real problem”, when compared with information available to the Garda when confronted with a car registered in the Republic.

Machines with automatic number plate recognition have been rolled out to each division. They are based on databases updated daily from the Irish Insurance Federation and vehicle tax authorities.

The in-car cameras can tell if passing cars are taxed and insured by scanning the registration. The system has been particularly successful at detecting forged insurance documents.