The Garda Inspectorate spent eight months investigating how the penalty points system works in practice and how it could be improved.
Its findings, published in a 74-page report, found the number of penalty point "fixes" over the years resulted in a technically deficient, managerially uncoordinated and inefficient support system.
So how many people were benefiting from the cancellation system?
The report found gardaí cancelled a total of 44,742 fixed charge notices or 5% of the total number of notices issued between 2011 and 2012.
Some offenders reviewed by the inspectorate had between three and ten fixed charge notices cancelled.
The report details a number of cases where penalty points should not have been cancelled.
For example, one taxi driver had five cancellations in ten months and another driver had three notices cancelled, two on consecutive days, because he claimed he was late for work.
There was a "significant" drop of 23% in the number of fixed charge notices issued since 2011 and a corresponding decrease in the number of cancellations.
The Garda Inspectorate said the timing of the decrease corresponds with the publicity around allegations of corruption with the cancellation process of the penalty point system.
The Assistant Commissioner's report indicated that in its examination of 1,537 fixed notice cancellations, 123 were issued to members of the gardaí of which 76 were determined to be "on duty".
But in its review of the cancellation files, the Garda Inspectorate found many of the fixed charge notices should not have been cancelled.
It said it found no evidence where petitions for cancellation from off-duty members were denied by a "cancelling authority".
Company cars
The inspectorate also calls for legislative changes to address the problem with issuing fixed charge notices for company cars, which were identified as far back as 2003.
Because companies do not always nominate persons driving their vehicle at the time of the offences, summonses are automatically cancelled because penalty points can only be assigned to a driving licence holder.
The Garda Inspector recommends the department consider imposing financial penalties on those companies that do not nominate details of the person driving the vehicle at the time of the offence.
Similarly with hire cars and unregistered vehicles, the inspectorate said consideration should be given to introducing legislation providing for penalties where hire car companies fail to supply driver details or those who fail to register their vehicle.
The Garda Inspectorate detailed cancellation files from one unnamed district.
It examined 30 cancellations files and these showed seven files with documented paperwork. The other 23 files had no documented cancellation paperwork available to the inspectorate.
Senior gardaí 'reminded' of policy
A total of 55 inspectors and superintendents were identified as breaching policy in cancelling fixed charge notices of varying degrees of seriousness.
Most were referred to their divisional officers for a "reminder" to comply with policy and three were referred to Garda Internal Affairs for investigation.
The Garda Inspectorate said it believes there is an inconsistent nationwide application of the current fixed charge notice petition policing.
According to the manual for cancelling penalty points, a fixed charge notice may be cancelled "only in exceptional circumstances".
The Garda Inspectorate said currently, there is no statutory provision that enables the use of discretion by the gardaí in cancelling of fixed charge notices.
