The Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, has told the Dáil that no new legislation will be required to deal with the dismissal of a number of traffic cases at the district court in Waterford.
Judge Terence Finn yesterday struck out 17 charges - including speeding offences - because the garda could not produce an original copy of the offence in court.
Mr McDowell said that on a preliminary examination of the issue he believed it could be dealt with administratively.
The problem relates to how speeding offences are logged in the garda computer system.
At present, when a garda stops a motorist with a hand held speed gun for speeding and issues them with a fine, the garda goes back to the station and puts the gun into a docking system.
The docking system then uploads the details of the offence to a central system in Dublin. This is the Fixed Penalty Office, which has subcontracted part of its work to a private company.
This private company sends out the fine to the motorist. The letter is sent out by normal post, not registered mail.
If the motorist does not pay the fine, a summons is issued and the motorist must appear in court.
But when the court case comes up, the judge can ask the garda if he has a copy of the original offence. The garda does not as the Fixed Penalty Office does not send him one nor does the private company.
Some judges may not ask for this copy, and if the solicitor does not raise the matter, prosecution follows.
This new centralised Dublin system for processing motoring offences was only introduced earlier this year and this may be the first case of its kind in the country.
