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Updated 9.12pm
THE CHAIRMAN OF the Dáil’s spending watchdog, the Public Accounts Committee, has said there are indications that the penalty points system continues to be abused.
John McGuinness was speaking at the launch of the PAC’s report into the administration of the fixed charge processing system which found that the State is losing between €5-6 million in unpaid road traffic fines every year.
The report notes that in his evidence to the committee last January, garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe told TDs that his treatment for speaking out had “destroyed me, my career and my family”.
McGuinness said that subsequent allegations made by McCabe about the penalty points system would appear to indicate that “the abuse of this system continues”.
Last month, McCabe is said to have alleged that off-duty members of the force have been cancelling points after falsely claiming they were driving Garda cars at the time of the offences.
It is not clear whether these cancellations took place after the reforms brought in by the acting Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan which give just three people the authority to cancel points. She has ordered a full audit of all penalty points cancelled since June, when a raft of new regulations came into force.
PAC member and Fine Gael TD John Deasy said today he would expect the Comptroller and Auditor General to carry out an examination of that audit when it is completed.
McGuinness said that conclusions in PAC’s report reflect that “the system was out of control”.
But he noted that the final report does not make reference to former garda commissioner Martin Callinan having lost control of the system as was stated in the committee’s draft report.
This is likely a result of the Supreme Court judgement in the Abbeylara case which prevents Oireachtas committees from making findings of fact against individuals.
On the former garda chief’s infamous reference to the actions of whistleblowers as ‘disgusting’, Fine Gael TD Kieran O’Donnell said it was the view of the committee that “Martin Callinan should not have said those words”.
McGuinness added that the onus was on the current garda commissioner to fix the system despite budgetary pressures, saying: “If you have a system that’s losing you €5 to 6 million a year then you’re going to have to do something about it.”
The PAC has recommended that the Fixed Charge Processing Office should report annually on the number of points cancelled using discretion and the number of petitions to cancel points received and rejected.
It also calls for the establishment of a whistleblower’s charter and says that the system of gardaí serving court summonses should be done via registered post.
There was widespread praise for McCabe at the report’s launch today with McGuinness saying he firmly believed the serving garda is “a catalyst” for change.
Responding to the publication of the report, interim Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan said the force is “fully committed to improving the effectiveness and transparency of the penalty points system”.
She said major changes had already been introduced in June this year following reports from the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Garda Inspectorate and that this new report is welcome as it will assist in the ongoing work to improve the system.
“On receiving the report, An Garda Síochána will immediately review the recommendations and examine how best they can be implemented as part of the on-going changes to the penalty points system,” she commented.
“As with all the stakeholders involved in the on-going development of the Fixed Charge Penalty System, An Garda Síochána’s primary focus is in ensuring that the penalty points system continues its success in improving road safety and reducing road deaths.”
- Additional reporting by Michelle Hennessy.
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Makes sense, young fellas have been passing lumps of turf off as hash for decades
@Fenster: haha very good
Bord na Schmoka
@Frank Discussion: Bord na Juana diversify more like…
@Frank Discussion: Bord Na Stoner
People will grow there own thanks no need for another cartel ripping the people off
Makes sense. Border na Móna is running out of peat. Saves the Gardai running around arresting growers, and keeps Big Pharma’s nose out. Let us, the taxpayers, benefit for once. Grow loads and become an exporter. It would ease the trials and tribulations we’re going to suffer after the b*lls up of Brexit. Get on with it now and stop twittering about *the future*.
Grow your own dope….. plant a FG td
@Gasher: That’s so funny
Whole new meaning to a bale of briquettes!
Open tender. Imagine the cost the state will incur to set this up, pensions, etc. Also, a private company can be taxed.
Best idea I’ve heard in years
Bord na Stóna
Clearly he has no idea and just thinks you can grow this on the bogs of Ireland.
The reality is a bit more scientific.
@paul kelly: The plant can grow in this country if altered enough and given enough help.
@Mr Snrub: Yes and penicillin can grow on orange peel, but to make medicinal canabis is a lot more complicated.
The state owning entire industries where it’s possible to have them open to private companies is not a good idea, and not the place we should be starting. It’s only politics that stand between the country has proper legislation to allow for cultivation, we don’t need to shoehorn it in as a state scheme. Medical patients should be allowed to grow their own. There’s no need to be putting further financial burden on people who are sick.
Bud na Mona
A good idea from an Irish politician. We should have him stuffed.
Theres Going to be a shortage of skins in the midlands…….
They have no idea what they are on about. Why does cannabis grow in the tropics?? Not cabbage???
@Mike Rugby Nuts: I don’t know much about it but would it not be good for hemp. They might be just the group to try Large scale hemp production for building materials and to replace a lot of plastic.
@Mike Rugby Nuts:
With 80,000 hectares and continuing global warming, BNM’s future looks bright on many fronts for the long-term. eg solar energy farms, large-scale medical marijuana production.
In the short-term, a few large greenhouses would suffice to supply all of Ireland’s medical marijuana requirements.
Mr. Canny should roll this idea along, for it’s a brilliant one. A Government Minister finally thinking outside the box!
@Rory J Leonard: Yes, it seems like a brilliant idea, and what a difference it would make to the hundreds laid off.
@Rory J Leonard: If they were that interested in the Carbon issue these bogs would be restored. The likes of windfarms are just a greedy grab for susidy money that is driving up all our energy bills with very little environmental benefit
@Mike Rugby Nuts: no cannabis grows pretty much all over the world – its’ a common misconception that it needs extreme temperatures. The idea of planting it in a bog though I don’t know about that … seems like this is more driven by jobs than it is by product quality but they do say the need to do tests first though so props to them for that at least.
I hear it’s pretty bog stand stuff…
Smoking !
so this is what’s holding up the industry
The state owning entire industries where it’s possible to have them open to private companies is not a good idea, and not the place we should be starting. It’s only politics that stand between the country has proper legislation to allow for cultivation, we don’t need to shoehorn it in as a state scheme. Medical patients should be allowed to grow their own. There’s no need to be putting further financial burden on people who are sick.
I can’t wait to see the day that Ireland will free the shackles and allow medicinal cannabis to be sold, it will help millions of people, but will the big pharma companies allow this to happen?
have your say