nine out of 10 banned drivers haven't surrendered licences, new figures show - smart

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris harassed the system to ensure that disqualified drivers did not use the road "not work", which caused road safety problems.
When new data showed nine of the drivers who were banned from driving had not yet handed over their licenses, he was speaking.
Of the 83,000 drivers who were disqualified in the past eight years, only 11% gave up their driver's license.
The figure was as low as 7% in 2012.
The growth rate last year was 13%.
The information was included in an answer to a question from the British Parliament, which came from the FBI's Peter Burke, who said it represented a "point of justice crisis ".
"When people think that 7% of the fatal accidents are caused by unqualified drivers, many people die," he said . "
When asked about the system, Mr. Harris said: "It doesn't work as we would like it to, and it doesn't work in disqualifying drivers as people would like it to, in general, keep their license
"It's not good, it's a road safety issue and people are actually running away from the justice handed over to them," he said.
Mr. Harris said that the road police are equipped with equipment for scanning permits and he hopes that 2,000 of the permits will be in circulation by the end of this year.
He said he would go back to the committee and give details of what was being done.
In response to Commissioner Harris's comments, the Road Safety Authority noted that 30% of disqualified drivers had never had a valid license, while the other 20% had an expired license.
RSA said in a statement that handing over the license does not guarantee that the disqualified driver will be away from the road.
It says that the key issue is that garda is able to identify on the side of the road those who drive at the time of disqualifying, regardless of whether their licence has been waived after disqualifying.
Rsa also said it believes it will release a new smartphone device to gardaí this year, enabling them to identify unqualified drivers and other road traffic violators.
At the same time, gardi also said that more than 2,200 people had been contacted in the 14,700 people wrongly identified as road traffic crimes, and their case had ended.
Deputy Commissioner John Twomey told the public account Board that the court had received another 2,000 cases and that gardi was dealing with other cases.
Of the 12,000 letters sent out, 5,000 were not delivered and local regulators were trying to find them, he said.
Many people moved or changed cars, he said.
He said that garda did not receive any requests for compensation and that there was no evidence that someone was unemployed because of those errors.
In relation to the dispute over the false breath test, Commissioner Harris told the commission that Gaudi now has more stringent control and made the necessary changes to ensure that this does not happen again.
Commissioner Harris said that prior to the establishment of the internal corruption unit in Garda sokana, he did not consult the Garda Ombudsman.
He told the pac that while GSOC is an independent agency responsible for investigating public complaints, it is his responsibility to investigate and eradicate potential corruption within garda.
He pointed out that Galda had previously investigated Galda, and he also found criminal acts and has been insisting on the end.
The investigations were conducted at very high standards, he said, and many garda were referred to the court, and GSOC was also informed.
David Cullinane of Sinn Féin filed a case of an individual at Garda Station on shop Street who complained about bullying and was arrested three weeks later for sick leave records.
He said the case then broke down and the court dropped the charges, which caused some problems.
Commissioner Harris said there was no record of complaints about bullying or harassment and no record was found, and the investigation was conducted on very reasonable grounds.
He said the case was publicly complained by GSOC and he had to wait for the GSOC to make a proposal.
Regarding the issue of garda I's body cameras, he said it was his policy to introduce them, but legislation was needed.
He said he had to decide which way to go.
Gardáí will get smartphones with video facilities that could be a cost-effective alternative.
He said that the body camera costs a lot in a few hundred months, but there are also data storage, and the storage time is also very long, 30 days or a year-"You really start to increase the cost there.
"The question he said is about the secure download and the evidence package that you can make in court.
Commissioner Harris also said that he had objections to overtime pay for the 15 minutes before Gardy was on duty.
As part of a wage agreement with the garda Association to avoid the garda strike, the government agreed to pay the fee, which increased garda's overtime cost by € 28 million.
Commissioner Harris described overtime pay as "Consumption of garda's budget and unsustainable ".
Overtime in the first three months of this year cost more than 22 euros, 6 euros less than the same period last year.
Commissioner Harris also told the Public Accounts Committee that the garda roster was "very inflexible" and needed to be spent and that he needed a roster that was "functioning effectively.