THE penalty points for a range of driving offences are available on a Road Safety Authority website in Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Irish – but not in English.

The Road Safety Authority (RSA) has admitted the error and said the oversight would be rectified. "That's something we will review and we will rectify it in the interest of clarity," a spokesman told the Sunday Tribune.

On www.penaltypoints.ie, a website set up by the RSA, a full list of the number of penalty points and whether someone will face a court summons and a fine in relation to a driving offence is available in nine languages other than English. They include French, Lithuanian, Latvian, Polish, and Portuguese.

However, the vast majority of people in Ireland who commit a driving offence and want to learn how many penalty points will be applicable and if they will be summoned to appear in court, would be seeking the most up-to-date information in English.

In the 'latest news' section of the website, the most recent press release is dated April 2009, meaning it is 16 months old. In the 'road crash statistics' section of the website, the most up to date information on road fatalities is from 2005. The spokesman said that certain sections of the website did need to be updated.

It emerged at the beginning of the month that there were almost 30,000 cases of drivers from outside the Republic not having penalty points applied to their licence last year. More than two-thirds of the cases related to speeding.

There were a total of 29,616 instances in 2009 when penalty points could not be applied because licences of foreign drivers were presented or the vehicle was registered outside the state.

Of that figure, 20,737 were for speeding offences, equivalent of 70% of such cases.

Earlier this year, a mutual recognition of driving disqualifications between Ireland and the UK was introduced and a project plan to pursue the mutual recognition of penalty points is now to be developed.

THE penalty points for a range of driving offences are available on a Road Safety Authority website in Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Irish – but not in English.

The Road Safety Authority (RSA) has admitted the error and said the oversight would be rectified. "That's something we will review and we will rectify it in the interest of clarity," a spokesman told the Sunday Tribune.

On www.penaltypoints.ie, a website set up by the RSA, a full list of the number of penalty points and whether someone will face a court summons and a fine in relation to a driving offence is available in nine languages other than English. They include French, Lithuanian, Latvian, Polish, and Portuguese.

However, the vast majority of people in Ireland who commit a driving offence and want to learn how many penalty points will be applicable and if they will be summoned to appear in court, would be seeking the most up-to-date information in English.

In the 'latest news' section of the website, the most recent press release is dated April 2009, meaning it is 16 months old. In the 'road crash statistics' section of the website, the most up to date information on road fatalities is from 2005. The spokesman said that certain sections of the website did need to be updated.

It emerged at the beginning of the month that there were almost 30,000 cases of drivers from outside the Republic not having penalty points applied to their licence last year. More than two-thirds of the cases related to speeding.

There were a total of 29,616 instances in 2009 when penalty points could not be applied because licences of foreign drivers were presented or the vehicle was registered outside the state.

Of that figure, 20,737 were for speeding offences, equivalent of 70% of such cases.

Earlier this year, a mutual recognition of driving disqualifications between Ireland and the UK was introduced and a project plan to pursue the mutual recognition of penalty points is now to be developed.