Gardaí will from this week be able to issue fixed charge notices (FCNs) for licence plate offences.
An Garda Síochána press office confirmed the issuing of notices “can now be facilitated by the Garda Mobility App”.
The move follows the passage of the 2023 Road Safety Act, which included penalties for drivers who do not comply with the law on appropriate front and back licence registration plates, including colour, shape, design and font.
Regulations were signed in May last year by then minister for transport Eamon Ryan but the ICT system on the Garda mobility app had to be upgraded to allow for the automatic issuing of fines from the app.
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Road safety campaign group Parc highlighted the issue after a member of the public contacted them with concerns about “the number of grey number plates and dangerous drivers”, according to its chairwoman Susan Gray. “When she reported it to the gardaí, they continually told her they could not do anything about illegal number plates” because of the ICT system, Ms Gray said.
Earlier this month, Fine Gael Dublin West TD Emer Currie raised the issue at an Oireachtas Transport Committee meeting attended by senior gardaí, the Road Safety Authority (RSA) and Ms Gray.
Ms Currie questioned why it had not been implemented and whether illegal number plates “interfere with automatic number plate recognition or speed camera vans”. Garda Deputy Commissioner Dr Shawna Coxon told her there had been an issue in the past “but currently there is none”.
It subsequently emerged that as of this week, Garda mobility apps have been facilitated to issue the €60 penalty. Non-payment of the fine results in an automatic court summons.
Ms Gray said she was “delighted that a law ... passed 2½ years ago has finally been incorporated into the Garda’s IT systems to allow gardaí on the ground to automatically issue fixed charge notices at the roadside via their mobility devices”.
Ms Currie said she was pleased penalties and summonses for illegal number plates can now be issued. “Good legislation was passed ... to make roads policing more productive and efficient, to clamp down on instances where drivers might evade automatic number plate recognition, but it wasn’t implemented.
“I’ve been chasing the Minister for Justice on this for months, and a week after raising it at the Oireachtas Transport Conmittee, it has been dealt with. It makes you question if our departments and agencies are working together as effectively as they should.”
Oireachtas transport committee chairman Michael Murphy said it was a “serious enforcement gap since 2023 ... it’s such a significant loophole and there are so many loopholes out there undermining road traffic enforcement”.
However, he welcomed the “positive” development “because there is a public safety issue around incorrect or obscured registration plates”.
