Parliamentary Questions

356. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Justice and Equality further to Parliamentary Question No. 399 of 21 April 2015, which provided details of the number of driving licence numbers recorded on the Courts Service criminal case tracking system in 2014 and to date in 2015 by District Court area, if she will provide this information for each of the years 2013 and 2014 and for the period January to March 2015 by District Court; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24584/15]

Minister for Justice and Equality (Deputy Frances Fitzgerald): The Deputy will be aware that, under the provisions of the Courts Service Act 1998, management of the courts is the responsibility of the Courts Service and I have no role in the matter. Section 4(3) of the 1998 Act provides that the Courts Service is independent in the performance of its functions, which includes the provision of information on the courts system. However, in order to be of assistance to the Deputy, I have had enquiries made and the table below provides details of the number of persons convicted of penalty point offences where driver licence numbers were recorded for 2013, 2014 and January to March 2015.
As indicated in my response to Question 399 of 21 April 2015 where an accused is brought before a Court in relation to a penalty point offence, the driving licence number is collected by two methods. The first is where the details are provided by An Garda Síochána prior to submission of an application for a summons in respect of the offence. Where the driving licence number is so collected, the driver licence number is sent electronically to the Courts Service with the summons application and the licence number is updated to the Courts Service computer system. Under the second method, the details are collected by the Court Registrar where a licence is produced to the Court at the hearing of the offence. I understand that an arrangement has been put in place between An Garda Síochána and the Courts Service to facilitate the bringing of prosecutions for the non-production of a driving license and that these prosecutions will commence shortly.