A woman who got five penalty points for not wearing a seat belt has had the points lifted and, due to a legal loophole, replaced by a 24-hour driving disqualification order.
Granted by Judge Desmond Zaidan at Naas District Court last month, it was the second 24-hour ancillary disqualification order obtained by the woman in recent months.
She got the first disqualification order, and a €500 fine, from the judge last December, after admitting using a mobile phone while driving. An application to have her conviction for that offence set aside had previously been brought and was granted by Judge Zaidan last July. The ancillary order meant she avoided penalty points.
She was fined, and had penalty points imposed, in December for the separate offence of not wearing a seat belt, but her solicitor Tim Kennelly subsequently sought to re-enter that matter. Last month, when it came before Judge Zaidan, he agreed to impose a 24-hour disqualification order, with the effect the fine and penalty points were set aside.
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There was no objection by gardaí to either of the applications.
The 24-hour disqualification orders were sought via a legal loophole which has been availed of by some drivers to avoid reaching the threshold of 12 penalty points, meaning a driving ban of up to six months.
After the loophole was highlighted by The Irish Times more than a year ago, an amending provision, Section 8, was included in the Road Traffic Act 2024 but that provision has yet to be commenced.
The Section 8 provision is intended to close off the loophole in section 2.8 of the Road Traffic Act 2002, which provides, where a person admits, or is convicted of, a penalty points offence, and an ancillary disqualification order is made in respect of that offence, those points shall not be endorsed on the person’s licence.
The section does not specify a minimum period of disqualification for an ancillary order, which is discretionary, not mandatory, leaving it up to individual judges whether to grant one.
Drivers on seven or nine points who come before court after failing to pay the fine in a fixed-charge notice, and who admit or are convicted of the offence, face reaching the 12 points.
If they get an ancillary disqualification order for a short period, the points will not be endorsed and they can resume driving.
The penalty points system for driving offences was introduced in October 2002 with a view to improving driver behaviour and reducing the numbers who die or suffer serious injury on our roads.
The Road Safety Authority has described penalty points as “essentially a formal reprimand” by the gardaí endorsed on a driving licence that shows a driver is guilty of a specific offence.
