The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Paschal Donohoe has signed an order commencing new powers for An Garda Síochána allowing them to arrest people who drive while disqualified.
The order, which commences section 6(b) and (c) of the Road Traffic Act, comes into effect next Monday, 22 June 2015.
Minister Donohue said on Friday, “Not surrendering their licences to the licensing authority (the RSA) and continuing to drive while disqualified has been identified as an issue that needs to be tackled. People who continue to drive after they have been disqualified commit a serious and unacceptable offence.”
The Minister added:”They are blatantly disregarding the sanction imposed by the court for another offence or offences which has put them off the road and should be dealt with severely’.
Minister Donohue stated that while it is not possible to state precisely how many drivers may be driving while disqualified figures show that, in recent years, approximately 10% of drivers disqualified in any given year were later subject to prosecution for driving while disqualified.
New Garda power to arrest disqualified drivers comes into force on Monday http://t.co/AWCZUFXxPG pic.twitter.com/x3lUvmYThp
— Paschal Donohoe (@Paschald) June 19, 2015
“Almost 13,000 drivers were disqualified in each of 2013 and 2014, with nearly 6,000 disqualified to date in 2015. The number of prosecutions for driving while disqualified was 1,286 in 2013, 1,392 in 2014, and 592 to date in 2015,” he added.
Before the measures commenced Gardaí who identified people while driving while disqualified were required to initiate proceedings resulting in a summons to court, and the case could potentially take months to reach the courts.
The new measures will see Gardaí be able to arrest drivers while disqualified, and bring them to court as early as the next day, or even on the day of the arrest, if a court is sitting.
“The new power of arrest, which comes into effect from Monday, represents the seriousness of the offence and provides An Garda Síochána with the necessary power to deal swiftly with this offence.
“I expect that this will have a very significant deterrent effect for persons who drive while disqualified and ultimately enhance safety on our roads.”
