The Road Safety Authority (RSA) today said steps were been taken to close a legal loophole that has enabled drivers escape penalty point sanctions.
It has emerged motorists convicted of serious road traffic offences did not have penalty points applied as their licence numbers are not always passed on from the courts to the Road Safety Authority (RSA) or because the licence is not brought to court.
There is currently not a legal requirement for court staff to pass on licence details to the RSA, which applies the points.
Commenting today, however, an RSA spokesman said: "It's not a free-for-all, and court convictions stand . . . the difficulty here is just applying the penalty points. New provisions in the 2009 Road Traffic Act will close off this loophole."
Earlier today, Noel Brett, chief executive of the RSA, said: "Normally, the court clerk would write down that detail and forward it onto the RSA, and the points are then assigned, but it is not a legal requirement, so, in some instances, the driver will just not bring their licence to court and won't have it present, and that's not followed up, or hasn't been followed up in many instances.
"Or, in some courts, the court clerk just simply doesn't collect that data . . . up until now it hasn't been a requirement that they do so by law," he said on Morning Ireland.
"The long and short of it is the judge heard the case, gave that sentence, and for those drivers that element of the sentence has not been imposed, and that's the point of concern."
Mr Brett confirmed 17,656 motorists had escaped punishment since 2003 due to this loophole.
He said a number of steps had been taken in an attempt to close off the loophole. "The new Road Traffic Bill, which was published before Christmas, now makes it a statutory requirement to bring your licence to court and for the court to capture that data.
"Hopefully the new legislation, which I hope will be debated in the Dáil and passed before summer, will close this off once and for all. It is exceptionally difficult, if it [the driver licence details] are not captured at court, it is very hard to go back after the event to do it."
"Many, many judges are very strict on this issue, and I don't think it is as bad as the early days of penalty points, but it does need to be changed," he added.
A spokesman for the Courts Service said staff recorded drivers' licence numbers "as required by law, and where able".
"However, they can only do this when a licence is produced. The need to bring a licence to court is outlined on the summons issued by us to each defendant. The matter of following up such an offence is not a matter for the Courts Service.
"The law at the moment does require people to produce their license but does not give any authority to the Courts Service or its court officials to demand its production."
He added: "It is a slur on the integrity of our dedicated and able staff to suggest or state that they 'are not bothering' to collect this information, as was stated in one newspaper."
The Road Traffic Bill 2009 seeks to address a number of other problems with the existing regime, including the fact almost 200,000 drivers have not had penalty points imposed on their licences, mainly because they have a licence or a vehicle registered in another State.
Mr Brett noted there was now also mutual recognition of disqualification between the Ireland, UK, and Northern Ireland.
Labour spokesman on transport Tommy Broughan criticised what he said was "incompetence at the highest level" in the Department of Transport.
"Yet again we see where transport Minister Noel Dempsey has lot the plot, rendering our road safety laws virtually useless in many instances. As a result we have a situation where drivers found to have broken the law are getting away with it, without sanction," he said.
"This problem first emerged in 2003, and the fact that are still waiting for legislation to remedy it, highlights Noel Dempsey's inability to get to grips with his job and his responsibilities."
The Department of Transport noted there was already an obligation on those charged in court under road traffic acts to present a driver's licence, adding a provision in the Road Traffic Bill 2009 would compel a person to present a photocopy of the licence to court staff. A spokeswoman said the time frame for passing the Bill was an issue for the political party whips.
