FG backbencher says wife given his penalty points

A prominent Fine Gael backbench TD has said his wife had penalty points added to her licence that he received for speeding.

Andrew Doyle, chairman of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, said he was caught speeding in 2009, but his wife ended up taking the points because of an adminstrative error.

Mr Doyle was clocked doing 82km/h in a 60km/h zone on the southbound lane of the M11 in Co Wicklow.

He was returning from a late-night committee session in relation to the Nama legislation.

Mr Doyle said the confusion arose because the car he was driving is registered in his wife's name.

He said he filled out the form and nominated himself as the driver on the night.

However, his wife did not post the form back in time and the points were applied to her licence as a result.

He described it as a "running joke" in his family as his wife accrued two penalty points while being in bed.

"She said: 'I'm the only person who could be in bed at 2.3am in the morning and gets penalty points assigned to me'," he told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.

Mr Doyle said he did not know at the time that he could have the points assigned to him with a phone call.

The issue of TDs and other prominent people having penalty points wiped from their licence by the gardaí has been contentious since it was raised by independent TD Clare Daly.

There was a furore when another independent TD Luke 'Ming' Flanagan admitted having points removed from his licence despite condemning the practice earlier.

An investigation ordered by the Minister for Justice Alan Shatter is due to be completed shortly.

The Irish Examiner, which has surveyed all 166 TDs, said 127 of them had claimed never to have had penalty points removed.

Five TDs declined to comment and 32 TDs did not respond including all the party leaders and the Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar.