Exposed: Rampant corruption & perjury continues in the justice department
Rampant corruption continues in the justice department
Ministers have speeding penalty points quashed, says former cabinet member
EXCLUSIVE: Fine Gael TD Michael Ring has accused Helen McEntee of 'hiding' details on the number of ministers who have had fixed charge notices cancelled
https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/ministers-speeding-penalty-points-quashed-32576576
Fixed charge notices and penalty points issued as a result of traffic offences involving ministerial cars are being quashed regularly, according to a Fine Gael TD and former member of cabinet.
Michael Ring said he was aware of government ministers who have “lectured the public” about road safety getting their Garda drivers to apply for fixed charge notices to be cancelled in the past 12 months.
The Mayo TD said the same law should apply to everyone, and criticised Justice Minister Helen McEntee for failing to disclose, in response to a parliamentary question, the number of ministers who had penalty points for speeding quashed.
She admitted, however, that Garda drivers assigned to government ministers can apply for fixed charge notices to be cancelled where they were using the vehicle in the course of their duties.
Ms McEntee said she was unable to provide Mr Ring with details of penalties relating to ministerial vehicles because applications for these to be quashed were “predominantly paper-based” and would require a significant “trawl”.
Searching for this information would therefore require “a significant amount of time and resources”, and this would negatively impact the work of the Garda National Roads Policing Bureau, she claimed.
Mr Ring told the Irish Mirror that he didn’t accept this excuse, and suggested that the reason the minister was “hiding” records regarding the cancellation of speeding tickets was that “there are so many of them”.
“There are only 15 senior ministers who have drivers, and that’s not a big job to keep those records,” he said. “We should be told the truth.”
The former minister said members of cabinet had been “going on” about road safety, speed limits, road deaths, and the need to slow down. “The rules have to be the same for everyone,” he added.
“They cannot be lecturing to the general public when ministers and Garda drivers seem to be exempt from the law. That cannot be. The law has to be there for everyone.”
Mr Ring said he was not looking for individual details but should be given information regarding the number of times penalty points for speeding have been cancelled in respect of ministerial cars.
“I’m very disappointed that we have ministers and we have a government lecturing to the public, expecting them to stay within the speed limit, and other people are exempt from it. We are all in this together,” he said.
In response to his parliamentary question, Ms McEntee said all ministerial cars are registered to An Garda Síochána and fixed charge notices are therefore issued to the fleet manager where a vehicle is detected by a speed camera.
Garda members can apply for an exemption under the Road Traffic Act where they were using the vehicle in the course of their duties at the time of the offence.
“There is no mechanism for identifying a [fixed charge notice] to the Garda ministerial pool as all cancellations seeking an exemption under [the Act] are processed under category ‘C’ cancellations,” she said.
“I am advised that the provision of the requested information would require the allocation of a significant amount of time and resources, which would negatively impact the ongoing work of the Garda National Roads Policing Bureau.”
Simeon Burke reports Garda Conor O'Dwyer for perjury after trial this week
https://twitter.com/voteforsimeon/status/1649728763964411905
Comments
Post a Comment