Minister for Transport Paschal Donohoe has said he is confident that amending legislation to deal with two issues relating to the application of penalty points will withstand legal challenges.
The minister said he had consulted the Attorney General and the amending legislation will be retrospective to deal with the application of fixed points from 1 August to 3 December.
The move comes after two flaws were discovered in legislation, which prompted fears of legal challenges.
There were 78,000 people who received penalty points since 1 August and 49 of these had lost their licences since August.
Minister Donohoe, who was made aware of the issue last week, said: "Two technical errors got through the various legislative checks.
"Once my department discovered the errors, every effort was made to quickly clarify the situation and to take corrective action."
The amending legislation will be introduced in the Dáil on Tuesday.
Mr Donohoe said: "My department had concerns in relation to two issues that they discovered in current legislation involving fixed charge notices/penalty points system and sought advice from the Office of the Attorney General to clarify the position and provide a legal approach to addressing the matters arising.
"That advice has now been received and I am this morning publishing a short piece of amending legislation to go through the Oireachtas next week.
"There will be no interruption to the enforcement of road traffic offences under the penalty points system."
Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald has said that we are now in an era of transparency for penalty points.
Speaking this morning, she said that herself and the Garda Commissioner are determined that anybody who does not behave properly on penalty points will be held to account.
Sinn Féin transport spokesperson Dessie Ellis said he was in "no doubt there will be a legal challenge after two issues were identified".
He described it as a "disaster" and said it may be a way out for some people who committed offences.
Fianna Fáil transport spokesperson Timmy Dooley said he was very concerned by the potential for legal challenges.
However, he said Fianna Fáil will be supporting the emergency legislation to deal with the issues when it is brought before the Oireachtas.
Mr Donohoe outlined the issues in his statement this morning.
Issue 1
"The 2014 Road Traffic Act omitted to amend a provision in the 2002 Act which excludes certain offences from the fixed charge system.
"With the bringing of the offences of using a vehicle without a valid NCT certificate and parking in a dangerous position within the fixed charge system as announced on Monday of this week, the 2002 Act should have been amended to remove these offences from the listed exclusions.
"Amending legislation to resolve this matter was prepared and I brought it to Cabinet last Tuesday week (2ndDecember). There are no implications from this oversight, so long as the amending legislation is enacted next week."
Issue 2:
"In preparing to bring this Bill to the Oireachtas, a further concern arose with the 2014 Act. Section 8 of the Act contains a number of provisions relating to the endorsement of penalty points.
"The main provisions of this section are important and their standing is not at issue. Section 8 also makes reference to sections 37 and 44 of the 2010 Act as the means of endorsing penalty points following the payment of a fixed charge notice.
"These particular sections of the 2010 Act are not yet ready to be commenced and, accordingly, that part of Section 8 (2014) should technically have also made reference to the 2002 Act, which was previously the means of endorsing penalty points. Section 8 (2014) was commenced on 1 August in order to bring about certain improvements in the penalty points system, but regrettably this also brought into effect what was simply a legislative error."
