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Cross border penalty points
campaign
30.06.10
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PARC road safety
campaigners have vowed to continue fighting to get
penalty points recognised on both sides of the
border.
PARC’s Susan Gray was speaking after Taoiseach Brian
Cowen said there was still a long way to go before
the system could be agreed.
Ms Gray said: “The problem, or at least one of the
problems, is the fact that there must be a
harmonisation of points on both sides of the border.
“At the minute you get three penalty points in the
North for speeding while here we get two.
“There are also differences in the drink driving
limit between the two jurisdictions.
“Until those issues are sorted out, it would be
difficult to see how they can get a system that will
see points recognised on both sides of the border.”
However, Ms Gray added: “But we should not let this
fact deter us from continuing to campaign for the
penalty point system to be working on both sides of
the border. |
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“Yes there are problems
but at the same time who would ever have thought
there would be a smoking ban, who would have thought
we would have got the drink driving limit lowered so
we have to keep on going to get this established.”
At the weekend, Mr Cowen said the powers to hit
motorists north and south of the Border with penalty
points required a lot more work and negotiation.
It had been hoped to clamp down on the thousands of
motorists who escape penalty points here every year
simply because they do not have an Irish driving
licence. |
But options to ensure
that driving offences can attract penalties in
different jurisdictions were still being explored
and had not yet been finalised, Mr Cowen said after
a meeting of the British-Irish Council in the
Channel Islands.
If the governments can find agreement, a driver who
is disqualified in Britain, for example, would not
be able to get a driving licence in Ireland.
In the long term, somebody caught speeding in the
Republic, but from Northern Ireland, would also be
liable for penalty points. Northern Ireland First
Minister Peter Robinson said the mutual recognition
plans are a "commonsense approach" and leaders were
agreed in principle to "moving in this direction".
He said the issue would be discussed at July’s
North-South ministerial council meeting. |
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