Garda, what Garda?
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010A third of all Irish drivers have never been stopped by a Garda for any reason, according to a poll of 11,000 Irish motorists carried out by the Automobile Association (AA).
Almost 42 per cent of all drivers have never had to show their driving licence to a Garda for any reason, and this was most likely to be true in Dublin and Leinster.
Females were more likely than males to report that they had never been stopped, likely to reflect the fact that males on balance tend to be higher mileage drivers than females, although that may be changing.
A quarter of all drivers now say that they have been breathalysed (this figure was highest in Dublin at 27 per cent).
“It is shocking that over 40 per cent of drivers have never needed to produce their driving licence,” says the AA’s Director of Policy Conor Faughnan.
“We go to so much trouble to get a licence and we are always told what an important document it is.” Nevertheless the survey does show a pattern of increasing Garda enforcement.
Nearly 17 per cent of Irish drivers have penalty points on their record currently. The vast majority of those have only 1 or 2 points on their licence. This would seem to indicate a penalty points system that is working effectively. Drivers who have received one warning are far more likely to moderate their behaviour. The numbers of drivers with multiple points incidents is extremely small, and the RSA reports that only 162 drivers (out of a licensed population of 2.6 million) are actually off the road at the moment with a points total exceeding 12.
Motorists who receive penalty points are often inclined to be unhappy with the circumstances. Slightly more than half of those surveyed (50.6%) felt that the circumstances in which they had been given penalty points were either somewhat unfair or very unfair. Females seem more likely to take it on the chin, so to speak, than their male counterparts. Only 41% of females, as opposed to 55.5% of males, felt that they had been given points in unfair circumstances.
