Road traffic act 2016

• Enactment Date: 27 December 2016
• Act Number: 21.

Number 21 of 2016
ROAD TRAFFIC ACT 2016
CONTENTS
PART 1
Preliminary and General
Section
1. Short title, commencement, collective citation and construction
2. Definitions
PART 2
Register of Written-Off Vehicles
3. Definition - Part 2
4. Vehicle insurer obligations
5. Offence of failure to notify
6. Publication of information provided by vehicle insurers
PART 3
Intoxicated Driving Offences - Driving Under the Influence of Drugs
7. Amendment of section 3(1) of Act of 2010 - definitions
8. Amendment of sections 4 and 5 of Act of 2010 - offences involving certain drugs
9. Amendment of section 7(a) of Act of 2010 - power of entry
10. Amendment of section 9 of Act of 2010 - obligation to provide preliminary oral fluid specimen
11. Mandatory intoxicant testing
12. Impairment testing
13. Amendment of Act of 2010 - obligation to provide specimens in relation to certain offences involving drugs
14. Amendment of section 17(1) of Act of 2010 - analysis of specimen by Bureau
15. Amendment of section 18 of Act of 2010 - provisions regarding certain evidence in prosecutions - presumption
16. Amendment of section 19(1) of Act of 2010 - written statement by member of Garda Síochána
17. Amendment of section 20 of Act of 2010 - presumptions relating to designated doctor or nurse
18. Amendment of section 21(1) of Act of 2010 - costs of prosecutions
19. Amendment of section 22 of Act of 2010 - defence to refusal to permit taking of specimen of blood
20. Amendment of section 26 of Act of 2010 - functions of Bureau
21. Amendment of section 26 of Principal Act - consequential disqualification
PART 4
Speed Limits
22. Amendment of section 9 of Road Traffic Act 2004 - special speed limits
PART 5
Amendment of Part 3 of the Road Traffic Act 2010
23. Fixed charge offences
24. Amendment of section 35 of Act of 2010 - fixed charge notice - service
25. Amendment of section 36 of Act of 2010 - fixed charge notice - form
26. Amendment of section 37 of Act of 2010 - payment of fixed charge
27. Payment of fixed charge notice on service of summons
28. Interpretation
29. Fixed charge offences - transitional provisions
PART 6
Miscellaneous Amendments - Road Traffic Acts 1961 to 2015
30. Amendment of section 78A of Principal Act - details of motor insurance policies to be provided
31. Regulation of Rickshaws
32. Amendment of section 107 of Principal Act - obligation on cyclists to give name and address etc. on demand to member of Garda Síochána
33. Amendment of section 22 of Road Traffic Act 2002
34. Amendment of First Schedule to Road Traffic Act 2002 - penalty points
35. Amendment of Part 4 of First Schedule to Road Traffic Act 2002 - penalty points
36. Amendment of Part 3 of Act of 2010 - fixed charge offences
37. Amendment of section 4 of Vehicle Clamping Act 2015
38. Amendment of section 50 of Act of 2010 - payment deposit
39. Learner Driver driving unaccompanied (Owner)
PART 7
Agreement on the Mutual Recognition of Driving Disqualifications Between Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
40. Disqualification pursuant to Agreement between State and United Kingdom
41. Repeal of section 9 of, and Schedule 2 to, Road Traffic Act 2002
SCHEDULE
Agreement on the Mutual Recognition of Driving Disqualifications Between Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Acts Referred to
Civil Service Commissioners Act 1956 (No. 45)
Courts (No. 3) Act 1986 (No. 33)
European Communities Act 1972 (No. 27)
Finance Act 1976 (No. 16)
Finance Act 1992 (No. 9)
Petty Sessions (Ireland) Act 1851 (14 & 15 Vict., c. 93)
Probation of Offenders Act 1907 (7 Edw. 7 c. 17)
Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Act 2004 (No. 33)
Road Safety Authority (Commercial Vehicle Roadworthiness) Act 2012 (No. 16)
Road Traffic (No. 2) Act 2011 (No. 28)
Road Traffic Act 1961 (No. 24)
Road Traffic Act 2002 (No. 12)
Road Traffic Act 2004 (No. 44)
Road Traffic Act 2010 (No. 25)
Road Traffic Act 2014 (No. 3)
Road Traffic Acts 1961 to 2015
Road Transport Act 1933 (No. 8)
Roads Act 2007 (No. 34)
Roads Acts 1993 to 2015
Taxi Regulation Act 2013 (No. 37)
Vehicle Clamping Act 2015 (No. 13)
Number 21 of 2016
ROAD TRAFFIC ACT 2016
An Act to amend and extend the Road Traffic Acts 1961 to 2015, to amend the Vehicle Clamping Act 2015 , to give effect to the Agreement on the Mutual Recognition of Driving Disqualifications between the State and the United Kingdom done at Dublin on 30 October 2015 and to provide for related matters.
[27th December, 2016]
Be it enacted by the Oireachtas as follows:
PART 1 Preliminary and General
		Short title, commencement, collective citation and construction
1. (1) This Act may be cited as the Road Traffic Act 2016.
	(2) This Act comes into operation on such day or days as the Minister may appoint by order or orders either generally or with reference to any particular purpose or provision and different days may be so appointed for different purposes or different provisions.
	(3) The collective citation “The Road Traffic Acts 1961 to 2016” includes this Act and Part 5 of the Vehicle Clamping Act 2015 .
		Definitions
2. In this Act—
	“Act of 2010” means Road Traffic Act 2010 ;
	“Principal Act” means Road Traffic Act 1961 .
PART 2 Register of Written-Off Vehicles
		Definition - Part 2
3. In this Part “vehicle insurer” has the meaning assigned to it in section 58 of the Road Traffic Act 1961 .
		Vehicle insurer obligations
4. (1) A vehicle insurer, who as a result of an inspection of a mechanically propelled vehicle determines that such vehicle is defective to the extent that it is—
	(a) when in motion, a danger to the public, and
	(b) beyond repair,
	shall notify the Minister in accordance with subsection (2) within 5 working days of such inspection.
	(2) When an insurer notifies the Minister under subsection (1) it shall also notify the Minister whether, based on the inspection of the vehicle, it is suitable for the salvaging of viable automotive parts.
	(3) A notification under this section shall be dated and shall include the following:
	(a) the registration number (if any) of the vehicle;
	(b) the make, model and body type of the vehicle;
	(c) the VIN, or vehicle identification number, of the vehicle, that is to say, the fixed combination of characters assigned to the vehicle by a manufacturer or its authorised distributor for vehicle identification purposes which is marked on the chassis, frame or other similar structure of the vehicle;
	(d) the date on which the vehicle was inspected by, or on behalf of, the vehicle insurer;
	(e) if the defect in the vehicle was the result of an event involving the vehicle which occurred in a public place, the date of that event and, if any insurance claim arose in relation to the vehicle’s involvement, the insurance company’s claim number in respect of that claim.
	(4) The Minister may make regulations prescribing the manner in which a notification under subsection (2) shall be made including, in particular, whether it is to be made electronically or in hard-copy.
		Offence of failure to notify
5. (1) A vehicle insurer who fails to notify the Minister in accordance with section 4 or who notifies information to the Minister knowing it to be false or misleading commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a class A fine.
	(2) Where an offence under this section is committed by a body corporate and is proven to have been so committed with the consent, connivance or approval of, or to have been attributable to the wilful neglect on the part of, any person, being a director, manager, secretary or other officer of the body corporate or a person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, that person, as well as the body corporate, commits an offence and is liable to be proceeded against and punished as if he or she were guilty of the first-mentioned offence.
	(3) Where the affairs of a body corporate are managed by its members, subsection (2) applies in relation to the acts and defaults of a member in connection with his or her functions of management as if he or she were a director or manager of the body corporate.
		Publication of information provided by vehicle insurers
6. (1) The Minister may maintain records of information notified to him or her under section 4 and may, after consultation with any other person or body that the Minister considers appropriate, for the purposes of increasing road safety, publish or share a part or all of such records.
	(2) The Minister may make regulations prescribing the manner in which records shall be published or shared under this section and, in particular, prescribing fees to cover the administrative cost of such publication or sharing.
PART 3 Intoxicated Driving Offences - Driving Under the Influence of Drugs
		Amendment of section 3(1) of Act of 2010 - definitions
7. Section 3(1) of the Act of 2010 is amended—
	(a) by substituting for the definition of “analysis” the following:
	“ ‘analysis’ includes any operation used in determining the concentration of alcohol in a specimen of breath, blood or urine, the concentration of a drug specified in column (2) of the Schedule in a specimen of blood and any operation used in determining the presence (if any) of a drug or drugs in a specimen of blood or urine, and cognate words shall be construed accordingly;”,
	(b) in the definition of “doctor” by substituting “register of medical practitioners” for “General Register of Medical Practitioners”,
	and
	(c) by inserting after the definition of “intoxicant” the following:
	“ ‘medical exemption certificate’ has the meaning given to it by section...