It's reported that Gardaí may lose the power to write off penalty points incurred by motorists.

A report to be published by justice minister Alan Shatter today will recommend overhauling the system so that local Gardaí cannot exercise discretion and have points removed from someone's license.

The report from the Garda Inspectorate is set to be highly critical of the manner in which penalty points are removed from driving licenses.

It's reported that the inspectorate's findings will be that there WAS significant shortcomings in how Gardaí manage the system - and some evidence of malpractice in how some points were removed.

In a statement last night Alan Shatter insisted that nobody could be afforded special treatment and have points removed based on their status or celebrity.

But the report is expected to show that, in some cases at least, this was exactly the case - and that, in contrast to what the minister has previously said, there is grounds to believe that some people have been given unfair treatment.

The main recommendation will be the overhaul of the system for removing points - in future only officials based at the Fixed Charge processing centre in Tipperary will have the authority to remove points from someone's record.