MINISTER FOR Transport Noel Dempsey has confirmed that he is examining a proposal to double penalty points for speeding and drink-driving offences during bank holiday weekends but the Labour Party has dismissed the idea as "hype and hot air" designed to grab headlines.
The initial call for an extra-tough bank holiday regime was made by Government Chief Whip Tom Kitt, who said he had asked Mr Dempsey to look at the issue. He cited the success of such a policy in New South Wales.
"I believe that Ireland should adopt the Australian policy on driving violations during bank holidays. The policy has dramatically reduced fatalities on Australian roads," said Mr Kitt.
"Although our penalty points system introduced in 2006 has contributed significantly to the reduction of deaths and injuries, bank holidays are high-risk periods due to the increased volume of traffic on the roads and the tendency to drink and drive.
"The aim of our road safety strategy over the next five years is to reduce the number of collisions, deaths and injuries on our roads substantially, and adopting the Australian policy would undoubtedly help in reaching that goal."
A spokesman for Mr Dempsey, who coincidentally is in Australia for the St Patrick's Day festivities, confirmed that the matter had been raised by Mr Kitt and had been passed to the Road Safety Authority for consideration.
However, John Boddinar, the former chief of police in the Australian state of Victoria and an international road safety adviser, said yesterday that the proposal had been discussed with Irish road safety authorities as far back as five years ago.
Interviewed on Newstalk, he said: "It was always discussed in meetings with your strategists and senior national roads authority people and the gardaí. Since 1997, when double demerit points were introduced, there's been a 30 per cent reduction in road trauma over those relevant periods over previous corresponding periods.
"So it does work and if it worked here it'll work there as well."
Labour Party transport spokesman Tommy Broughan accused the two Ministers of engaging in hype. "Instead of floating yet another headline-grabbing scheme, why doesn't the Minister urgently ensure that we have universal enforcement of all current traffic and motoring laws?"
He said figures from the Courts Service last year highlighted that almost half of all motorists were not paying fines imposed for offences such as speeding and not wearing a seatbelt.
"It was estimated that in total only 50 to 60 per cent of traffic fines were being paid and that a significant number of motorists who had received 12 penalty points were not voluntarily giving up their licence as they are obliged under law to do. There are a whole range of legislative loopholes and lack of resources to implement current laws which Minister Dempsey has not addressed," he said.
Fine Gael transport spokesman Fergus O'Dowd said Mr Kitt's proposal deserved serious consideration, but proper enforcement of the existing system was needed.
"While Tom Kitt claims this has had an impact on the number of road deaths in Australia, he obviously knows little of the penalty points system in Ireland. At present there are tens of thousands of drivers who are escaping penalty points for offences such as speeding, as the District Courts cannot process the huge volume of cases," said Mr O'Dowd.
