A garda was entitled to demand production of an insurance certificate in relation to a vehicle registered in another EU member-state, provided it was a demand made at random and not at point of entry into Ireland, the High Court ruled yesterday.
The President of the High Court, Mr Justice Morris, was delivering judgment on a case stated by District Court Judge Mary O'Hanlon. She had asked the High Court to determine, having regard to a European Directive on liberalisation of movement between EU states and the European Communities Insurance Regulations 1995, whether the Garda was entitled to demand that Mr Patrick O'Connor produce an insurance certificate for the use of a vehicle in a public place in the course of his employment in the motor garage business in the UK, the vehicle being registered in the UK.
Mr Justice Morris said the matter at issue was the powers of the Garda to demand production of a certificate of insurance under the Road Traffic Act or otherwise. Mr O'Connor had been asked by a Garda to produce his insurance certificate at Ballycormac, Shanagolden, on January 30th, 1997. No certificate of insurance or certificate of exemption was produced.
Mr O'Connor had contended at the hearing of the complaint the Garda had no power to demand an insurance certificate in relation to a vehicle deemed to be based in another member-state of the EU.
Ruling on the matter, Mr Justice Morris rejected a submission on behalf of Mr O'Connor that the issues raised in the case must be brought before the European Court of Justice. The judge said it was his view that the prohibition in a 1972 European Council Directive on insurance checks of vehicles deemed to be based in another EU state related to border checks but not internal checks.
He said the purpose of the directive was liberalisation of movement within member-states. That purpose was served by a ban on border checks but not by a ban on internal checks, as long as those checks were carried out in a non-discriminatory manner.