Driver fines cases ‘will be a mess’

A LEADING solicitor in road traffic matters has said it is ‘going to be mess’ for An Garda Síochána and the courts to deal with a plethora of cases brought by motorists wrongly prosecuted for road traffic offences.

Mayo solicitor Evan O’Dwyer, an expert in road traffic cases, told RTÉ Radio 1’s Today With Seán O’Rourke: ‘This is not Mickey Mouse stuff. These are people’s lives we are talking about. Consider if you were to get a conviction and the conviction was a wrong conviction. If you phoned your insurance company and they increased your premium by X amount of a percentage for X amount of years, that’s a quantifiable loss.

‘So if you’re out of pocket €1,500 because of your insurance, you now have a causative action for the system failing.’

The solicitor predicted that the situation will be more problematic than anticipated by the State. ‘The first image in my head was that the toothpaste is out of the tube. It’s going to be impossible to remedy what has happened so far,’ he said. ‘Judges are not going to be happy. Inspectors and superintendents are going to be excoriated for the failures that have taken place above their heads.’

Meanwhile, in a first for An Garda Síochána, an assistant commissioner was appointed by the Policing Authority.

Detective Chief Superintendent Michael O’Sullivan was made Assistant Commissioner.

The task is usually undertaken by the Minister for Justice.