210 Deputy Seymour Crawford asked the Minister for Transport the progress, if any, that has been made with the Northern Ireland and UK authorities regarding the problems of speeding and other activities where penalty points should be applicable either north or south of the Border so as to minimise the risks of accident and death especially along the motorways; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42827/10]

Bilateral arrangements between the UK and Ireland, under Article 15.4 of the 1998 EU Convention on driving disqualifications, came into operation on 28th January 2010. These arrangements relate to disqualifications arising from a range of traffic offences. Now that the mutual recognition of driving disqualifications is in place, a project plan will be developed to pursue the mutual recognition of penalty points, between this country, Northern Ireland and the UK.

Unlike driving disqualifications, there is no agreed international framework dealing with the recognition of penalty points for driving offences and a very significant volume of work needs to be done to, among other things

provide an appropriate framework of law and international agreement

put in place the necessary administrative systems, involving the development, implementation and operation of computer systems; and

overcome the practical difficulties arising from the differences in the penalty points systems in the UK and Ireland.

Officials from all three jurisdictions will continue to work towards next steps regarding this longer-term project.

However, as there is no mutual recognition of penalty points at present between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, there is a need to address the aggregation of such penalty points in the overall context of a move towards the mutual recognition of penalty points between the UK and Ireland.