Gardai are powerless to prosecute motorists they catch watching sport or movies on their phones – while behind the wheel, a senior officer confirmed yesterday.
Assistant Commissioner Paula Hilman, who is in charge of roads policing, said that no offence was committed if motorists were watching their phones – but were not holding them.
A/C Hilman told a meeting of the independent Policing Authority held in Drogheda, Co Louth motorists could only be prosecuted if they were caught holding their phones.
She said: “The offence is holding a mobile phone; what we’re seeing now is people watching, having FaceTime messages and calls, and people watching sport.
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“There’s no offence of distracted driving so that is something we’ve raised at our partnership meetings because the offence is holding the mobile phone.”
A/C Hilman also said gardai had raised the issue with state bodies - including the Department of Justice.
The meeting also heard that so far this year gardai had caught 3,335 alleged drunk drivers – compared to 3,400 in the same period in 2022.
Meanwhile, Commissioner Drew Harris last night said the force was taking seriously claims by an anonymous whistleblower – first revealed in The Mirror earlier this month – that there was a crisis in the roads policing system.
We revealed an anonymous letter had been sent to Garda management from a member of the force who said the roads policing system was just not working – and that many officers were not doing their jobs.
Mr Harris said the letter was now being investigated as a protected disclosure – but officers needed more details from the whistleblower.
He said the letter did not include dates, times or locations of alleged incidents and was difficult to investigate.
He urged any garda with concerns to come forward.
