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Caught speeding in Ireland: must I pay the 80 euros fine?
I just received a Fixed Charge Offence from Irish Police (An Garda Siochana) for speeding offence (GATZO camera) in County Louth. This was in a hire car whilst on a weekend break. The ticket is for 80 euros and requests driving licence information: Am I obliged to pay and if not will they pursue it? Am I obliged to give licence information and if so will I get penalty points on my licence? Could I just ignore and deny that I have received any such notification and claim it was never received?
Police forces have been sharing information across Europe since March regarding Road Traffic Offences but thus far very few prosecutions have taken place. It is not yet possible to impose penalty points on a Europe-wide basis and you are not obliged to reveal details of your licence to them, but there are plans in place to enforce fines.
That said, given the circumstances which you outline, it seems far more likely that the information was provided to the Garda by the hire company and in turn they wrote to you requesting payment of the fine.
Whether or not they will pursue it is a good question and my guess is for some considerable time they will write it off, and even if they didn't the British police are unlikely to busy themselves collecting on Irish speeding tickets.
Be aware though, that even though the hirer probably obtained a hirer waiver we have seen charges for fines made to credit cards by the hire company in some EU countries in settlement of the hirer's fines.
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