Road Traffic Act 2010

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PART 5

Penalty Points

Penalty points — endorsement of points.

53.— (1) Section 1(1) of the Act of 2002 is amended by substituting for the definitions of “entry”, “licence” and “licence record” the following:

“ ‘entry’ in relation to a person, means—

(a) the entry in the licence record relating to the person, or

(b) where—

(i) a licence record relating to the person—

(I) does not exist as he or she is not the holder of an Irish licence, or

(II) exists but is not identified for the purpose of endorsing particular points, or

(ii) the person is the holder of a foreign driving licence,

the entry in such record kept or created in respect of that person under section 1A;

‘Irish licence’ means an Irish driving licence or a learner permit granted under Part III of the Principal Act;

‘licence’ means an Irish licence or a foreign driving licence, as the case may be;

‘licence record’ means the record jointly established and maintained by the Minister and all the licensing authorities under section 60 (2) of the Finance Act 1993 , in relation to Irish licences;”.

(2) The following section is inserted after section 1 of the Act of 2002:

“Records — foreign driving licence holders and unlicensed drivers.

1A.— The Minister may prescribe by regulations the form of record to be kept or created in respect of a person—

(a) who is not the holder of a licence,

(b) where a licence record exists relating to the person but is not identified for the purposes of endorsing particular points, or

(c) who is the holder of a foreign driving licence and who—

(i) makes a payment under section 37 or 44 of the Road Traffic Act 2010 in respect of an alleged penalty point offence referred to in section 2(1)(a), or

(ii) is convicted of a penalty point offence,

for the purposes of endorsing penalty points under section 2 on the entry relating to the holder.”.

(3) Section 2 of the Act of 2002 is amended by—

(a) in subsection (1), substituting “under section 37 or 44 of the Road Traffic Act 2010” for “under section 103 (as inserted by this Act) of the Principal Act”,

(b) substituting for subsection (7) the following:

“(7) Where such an entry is made and subsequent to the making of the entry a pre-existing entry is identified by a licensing authority or by the Minister relating to the same person, any points endorsed on the first mentioned entry shall, during their period of endorsement under section 4, be associated with the pre-existing entry and the person notified accordingly. Any points so associated with an existing entry may, at the discretion of the Minister, have effect from the date recorded in the original entry and where the number of points equals or exceeds 12 that person stands disqualified under section 3 for holding a licence.”,

and

(c) inserting after subsection (9) the following:

“(10) A vehicle insurer with the approval of the Minister may have access to and may inspect and examine endorsements on the entry relating to persons under this section and may take, or be supplied by the Minister with, such copies of entries or extracts from such entries as the vehicle insurer may reasonably require for the purpose of renewing approved policies of insurance, subject to such conditions as the Minister may determine.”.

(4) The following section is substituted for section 6 of the Act of 2002:

“6.— Where, during the period of 3 years for which penalty points stand endorsed on the entry of a person or the period of 6 months for which a person stands disqualified under section 3 for holding a licence, the person becomes disqualified under Part III of the Principal Act or section 9 for holding a licence, no part of the period of the disqualification shall be reckoned as part of the 3 years or part of the period of 6 months, and the date of the ending of the two latter periods shall be determined accordingly.”.