Pay your fine, but,
NO POINTS DEDUCTED, !!
Read on :-
This is how the points get added to your licence:
If you get a fixed penalty notice through the post which also carries
penalty points the computer system first sends you a demand for the
cash.
When you have paid, it then sends a demand to return your licence for
endorsement.
It cannot handle the licence endorsement and the payment at the same
time, and it cannot process the points part of the system until the
financial section is complete.
If you overpay the fixed penalty, it must issue and send a refund
cheque for the overpayment.
Therefore, overpay the fixed penalty by sending a cheque for the full
amount plus €1.
The computer will then automatically generate a refund cheque for the
over-payment and send it to you.
**** Do not cash this refund cheque – DUMP IT.
The system then remains ‘open’ and cannot generate the ‘send your
licence for endorsement’ demand part of the program.
It does, however, record your payment of the fixed penalty, so it does
not trigger the ‘follow-up unpaid fine’ stage.
As there is no human intervention, the system will leave you alone,
since it has got your money, which is the primary objective!
On opening my mailbox today, I found the message above sent to me by a pal. It purports to help you avoid penalty points on an Irish driving license. I met up with this same pal later and inquired as to the origin of the message and it’s veracity. He says the person who sent it to him knows someone on “the inside” and leaked this operational flaw in the points assessment system.
Knowing a little about process logic it’s easy to think that such a situation might occur - it’s sort of plausible and of course the fact that it’s a Government ICT system makes it all the more credible!
Needless to say I’m not in any hurry to put it to the test but would welcome your thoughts and comments on it. Maybe we need an Irish version of Snopes 
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Admin staff copped this pretty quick your cheque just gets returned and is not entered in the system until a cheque for the correct amount is received but people who want to chance this make sure you have enough time left to send in the correct amount otherwise if it goes over the 28 days guess what your fine is now €120 as opposed to €80. Just want to warn people who do try it its a pain paying €0 but even worse paying €120
Hello Chocolatelover! Here's an update for you that I know to be true. The ruse didn't work
A pal got a notice and sent a cheque for €82 rather than the required €80. Some time later he received a confirmation that the points had been applied and a line in the letter referred to overpayments of less than $5 as not being refunded.
So in that particular case neither the cheque was returned, nor the €2 refunded. It's beginning to sound like a bit of an urban myth to me, great for a pub, but nowhere else
Nice one Tom, I am not sure if that is technically the correct procedure in place as they are obliged to give the refund back or not accept the cheque. but that email is going around again and its enough for people to pay the €80 but didnt see anywhere on any of the forums explaining that it could actually cost you more, so just wanted to warn people.
Kind Regards,
Margaret
Really interesting post.. thanks. You make some very valid points and it is clear that most people agree with you!