How about Singapore style Caning?At a cost of €400,000 per offender with 50 nabbed per day that would be a major drain on the exchequer, never mind the bill for a brand new prison just for insurance dodgers.
The current system is like putting an extra tax on fruit and vegetables because other people eat too much junk food. Bizarre.
Well we can't punish those charged to policing and enforcing the regulations as they are State employees and so blameless no matter what they do (or don't do).Punishing the innocent has always been a key element of our governments' response to its many failures to enforce legislation and regulation.
(That's why we're paying for the repairs to all those mica houses!)
It would be money well spent - it wouldn't be permanent, as the number of offenders would drop over time - and that's before we consider the income the prisoners would generate working on the chain gangs!At a cost of €400,000 per offender with 50 nabbed per day that would be a major drain on the exchequer, never mind the bill for a brand new prison just for insurance dodgers.
Large numbers of disqualified drivers are still not surrendering their driving licences with their designated driver number, making it difficult for gardaí and insurance companies to determine that a ban is in place. That is according to the civil society group Parc which has compiled a league table of the number of disqualified drivers, by county, who have simply failed to hand up their driver numbers to the courts and return the licence to the Road Safety Authority (RSA).
Under normal circumstances a driver on being disqualified by a court, should produce their driving licence so its driver number may be noted by the court. The licence is then handed back to the defendant or their legal representative, to facilitate 12 day period in which an appeal may be launched.
However, the RSA has previously told the Oireachtas Transport Committee that to police such an arrangement, and to prosecute disqualified drivers for not returning their licences, the RSA would have to have staff in every court which deals with motoring offences.
Over the two year period 2022-2023, just six out of 232 drivers in Co Carlow surrendered their licences on being disqualified by the courts. The number was four in 2022 and this fell to two in 2023. Over the two years this represents a compliance rate of just 2.6 per cent.
In Dublin city and county there were 4,708 disqualification notices issued in 2022-2023 but just 154 people, or 3 per cent, complied with their legal obligation to send their licence back to the RSA.
We were close to that in urban areas with parking attendants who check parking compliance and can check registration numbers, NCT, tax, and insurance validity, and can clamp cars. I don't know if they can demand to see licence details. They messed all that up by employing the gurrier clampers from private industry.I have long thought that a dedicated transport police reporting to the Minister for Transport is necessary.
Times are getting slow, the Indo had that last week.And further evidence of the utter incompetence of our law makers and the consequences of poorly thought out legislation; from today's Irish Times:
I don't see incompetence on behalf of the law makers here,
In this day and age, why on earth does anyone have to surrender their licence?. It's a plastic card. Surely, in the same way that there is a database on insured cars which the Gardai can access, there is also a database of licences and if the Gardai stop someone, all they should have to do is key the number into a portal and it says if the driver should be driving or not? or stick a QR code on new ones and all they have to do is scan it.
This licence surrender stuff is back in the Dark Ages in my view
Why can’t the Courts Service collect this data and return it to the RSA?As I quoted above "the RSA has told the Oireachtas Transport Committee that to police such an arrangement, and to prosecute disqualified drivers for not returning their licences, the RSA would have to have staff in every court which deals with motoring offences."
Why can’t the Courts Service collect this data and return it to the RSA?
Surprise surprise, the semi-competent quango that is the RSA suggest they should be the ones enforcing this and need more staff / money to do so. Law enforcement is a matter for the Gardai.he law makers should have realised that unless the staffing of the RSA was sufficient to meet the above requirement, then the provision couldn't be implemented. And that, in my vocabulary, is incompetence.
Did it not strike you that they can enter the persons name as an alternative? They don't need the license number to confirm that or whether the driver has valid insurance.And did it strike you that, if the driver tells the garda that s/he hasn't got their licence with them, then the garda can't key any number into the portal
That's easily dealt with. It's a legal obligation under the Road Traffic act to produce your licence when asked for it by a Gardai. Pass a simple amendment to the act to remove the 10 days presentation piece and impound the car until a licence is produced. People will learn very quickly to carry it.And did it strike you that, if the driver tells the garda that s/he hasn't got their licence with them, then the garda can't key any number into the portal and hence is unable to check whether or not they are banned or not? So what will happen - and happens on a daily basis - is that the driver will be instructed to present their licence in a Garda Station within 10 days and will then be able to continue on his or her merry way.
Or if you don’t have your licence on your person you have to walk home.Pass a simple amendment to the act to remove the 10 days presentation piece and impound the car until a licence is produced. People will learn very quickly to carry it.
and driving an Audi SUV, not a Jeep Guard16 years old, therefore uninsured, unlicensed.
Did it not strike you that they can enter the persons name as an alternative? They don't need the license number to confirm that or whether the driver has valid insurance.
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