The District Court cannot sustain the level of motoring offence cases coming before it under the fixed penalty points system, the Courts Service has said.
The service has also expressed apprehension at the prospect of the introduction of Statewide, privatised speed cameras because the number of summonses is set to rise dramatically, resulting in further motoring cases clogging up the courts.
According to papers obtained by Opposition transport spokesman Fergus O'Dowd, the Courts Service carried out an analysis of penalty point cases for October 2006, and concluded that more than 60 per cent of summonses did not result in a successful prosecution.
The Court Service papers describe the result as "a waste of Garda time, and a waste of the courts' time". The papers go on to suggest that when the privatised speed cameras are introduced, summonses will rise and "there is no basis for optimism that the outcome will be any better. The district court cannot sustain the level of presentations".
In a further analysis, the Courts Service found that in the first six months of 2007, some 88,000 summonses were issued in relation to the penalty points system.
However, just over 14,000 were successfully prosecuted. The Courts Service also noted there were additional difficulties in recording penalty points against those who did not bring their licence to court.
In such circumstances, the introduction of privatised speed cameras could make the situation in the courts considerably worse, said Mr O'Dowd. Speaking to The Irish Times before he raised the issue in the Dáil last night, Mr O'Dowd pointed out that the proposed speed cameras would take about 11 million "snaps" a year, and that just 10 per cent of those going to court would result in another 1.1 million cases in the district court.
A Garda press officer said yesterday that the award of the privatised speed camera contract was "still being evaluated". The contract is for between 3,000 and 4,000 hours of detection which may be spread around in up to 600 separate locations using mobile cameras.
Some 20 per cent of the sites are to be covert, while the remainder will be well flagged. The ratio reflects the desire of the Government to save lives, as opposed to raising revenue.
But Mr O'Dowd said it was clear that enforcement was not working. He said six firms that had bid for the contract to operate a privatised speed camera system were still waiting to find out who had won the contract.
Plans for the privatised speed camera system were announced in August 2005, by the then ministers for justice and transport, Michael McDowell and Martin Cullen, but despite the tendering process earlier this year, no announcement has been forthcoming.
It is widely believed in the industry that the tender may now be amended or altered - a feature that would result in further delays.
Mr O'Dowd said the question of the delay in setting up privatised speed cameras was now academic, because of the comments from the Courts Service. The three-page document released to him expands on previous concerns expressed by the Courts Service and submitted to the Department of Transport.
