Gardai terminating penalty points

Brendan Burgess

Brendan Burgess

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An interesting report in today's [broken link removed]
Documents seen by The Irish Times show the details of the persons whose points were terminated, the reasons sometimes given for the termination, and in many cases Garda personnel numbers that appear to identify those who terminated the points.


Among those who have had their points terminated are two members of the judiciary.


...
A high-profile GAA figure has had points terminated four times, three times this year, including two offences recorded in a three-day period.


A prominent figure from RTÉ has also had points terminated, as has a journalist who has been well-known for several decades.


A former Fine Gael councillor has also had points terminated, as has a man who has played rugby for Ireland. The RTÉ figure and the man who has played rugby for Ireland were both recorded doing 150km/h in a 120km/h.



On point: speeding judge

A judge at the centre of the controversy around the termination of penalty points had points terminated three times.

Once the judge’s car was recorded driving at twice the legal speed limit – 101km/h in a 50km/h zone. The next day the car was detected travelling at 90km/h in the same location.
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It would have helped if the IT had disclosed the rank of those terminating the points and the procedure for doing so.

If it's the case that an ordinary Garda can do this without a second approval being done then there's a very clear systems fault as well as a moral/ethical fault of the person terminating the points.
 
The indo stated that it was a superintendent. They have to power to quash points if people appeal in writing to them so this could be just a sensationalist article. What if all the people that got their points quashed sent in a written request to do so stating good reason for it ? It's up to the discretion of the super.
 
good point...now..... if we were to get the evidence/stats behind this,
i.e.

-how many points were quashed without the written appeal
-successful appeals by "ordinary punters" vs "high profile"

unlikely to get this, but would be very interesting....
 
Well you could also ask, how many high profile people would have been advised to write in. Ordinary Joes like myself didn't know of this option. This would have a bearing also. I think, like all things discretionary, high profillers will use influence. I don't begrudge them this. At least this article has given us poor mortals another option if they feel hard done by.
 
But it should really take 2 signatures to over-turn points to reduce the chance of corruption.
 
This story is a complete non story.

Gardaí never had powers to issue points in the first place, that is the role of the DOT/RSA.
All Gardaí can do is issue a fixed penalty notice offering not to prosecute in exchange for a sum of money and accept a number of penalty points.

A superintendent can cancel a penalty notice at his discretion. He has no authority to remove points that have been applied by the DOT.
 
Points should never be terminated. This just shows that "pull" is alive and well in Ireland. Imagine when Junior cert is abolished. Anyone with a student about to start senior cycle should start contributing to the school and perhaps buying a few drinks for the teachers.
 
Time said:
No points have been terminated. Penalty notices have been dropped.
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The end effect is the same, I'm all for pedantry but this it going a bit too far.

OK, using your language, do you think Garda should have the powers to drop penalty notices?
 
Time said:
They should be able to exercise discretion.
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Why?

While I think someone who has no prior record of getting points might be given leeway, given a warning and its recorded I don't think a persistent offender should be given discretion.
 
The story is wrongly worded. Journalists never let the real truth get in the way of a story.

I has certain information but I shall not be sharing it here.
 
Time said:
. Journalists never let the real truth get in the way of a story.
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I wouldn't argue with that. And often, they don't go beyond cutting and pasting the press release.

But the wording of the article seemed fairly specific to me. Either way, the end result is the same, whether it is the points or the FPN that gets pulled.
 
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