A new mobile app could soon allow motorists across Donegal caught without their car tax paid to pay what they owe on the spot.
This will ensure the drivers’ car won’t be seized by the authorities.
The move follows a pilot project in Limerick involving 50 gardai who’ve been trialing new Garda mobile apps, as part of the force’s Garda ACTIVE Mobility Strategy.
The Policing Authority held a meeting in Dublin Castle today and The Journal is reporting that Assistant Commissioner Dave Sheahan told those in attendance about an app which allows gardai to check a vehicle’s history and tax status.
He said: “Last Friday – what would happen before was a garda wrote a ticket and then that ticket would be brought back to station and had to be inputted into a book that would have to be sent to Thurles to put in on the system.
“What we have done now is that we have built an app and with the app, you can deal with the person on the side of the road.”
Asst Comm Sheahan went on to describe how the app was used when a garda stopped a car in Limerick last week.
He said: “We stopped a car whose tax was out for eight months.
“He had the opportunity of taxing his car rather than us seize his car.
“That has huge implications not only for ourselves but for the Department of Transport and the courts system and we don’t have to tow the car.”
