Parliamentary Questions

631. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Justice the number of vehicles seized by An Garda Síochána in 2019, 2020 and to date in 2021, by Garda district and division to learner drivers for the offence of driving unaccompanied by a qualified driver; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23852/21]

Minister for Justice (Deputy Heather Humphreys): As the Deputy will be aware, the Road Traffic (Amendment) Act 2018, known as the Clancy Amendment, provides for penalties to be imposed on car owners who allow their vehicles to be used by an unaccompanied learner driver. The law provides for fines to be levied in such cases and gives Gardaí the power to seize their cars if being driven by unaccompanied drivers.
The Garda authorities have provided me with the below table, which has an annual breakdown by Garda division of the number of instances in which a vehicle was seized under Road Traffic legislation in circumstances of the vehicle being driven by a learner driver unaccompanied by a qualified driver.
I am advised by An Garda Síochána that given the large number of Garda districts, it is not possible to provide a breakdown to district level.

Garda Division	2019	2020	2021*
Cavan/Monaghan	115	70	30
Clare	16	19	-
Cork City	61	149	72
Cork North	62	72	58
Cork West	79	47	13
D.M.R. Eastern	66	81	49
D.M.R. North Central	108	132	42
D.M.R. Northern	167	181	103
D.M.R. South Central	104	187	91
D.M.R. Southern	264	315	127
D.M.R. Western	380	502	225
Donegal	76	72	43
Galway	45	56	16
Kerry	62	64	17
Kildare	211	361	169
Kilkenny/Carlow	49	79	27
Laois/Offaly	56	109	66
Limerick	153	110	63
Louth	47	95	30
Mayo	25	13	10
Meath	35	86	45
Roscommon/Longford	34	65	21
Sligo/Leitrim	19	22	13
Tipperary	58	100	47
Waterford	41	121	43
Westmeath	34	24	-
Wexford	56	125	47
Wicklow	86	100	58

* Figures for 2021 up to 30/04/2021
- Figures less than 10.
For the Deputy's information, the figures in the above table are based on incidents which occurred from 1 January 2019 to 30 April 2021, inclusive. All information contained in the above table is based upon operational data from the Pulse system as was available on 4 May 2021 and is liable to change.