Gardai should specify fines payment date

Dear Sir - Recently, I incurred a fixed charge penalty of €60 for a driving offence which I paid, as I understood it, within the allocated time period. However, my payment was returned as out of date and incurred an extra €30 penalty. I must now pay €90 by 27th May to dispose of this matter out of court. I would now call on An Garda Siochana to clarify their payment terms. I understood 28 days from 2nd April to mean 30th April and paid the fine on 30th April by post which was duly received and date-stamped on 30th April at Collection Centre in Kilrush, Co Clare. I was notified by post, received on 1st May, the next day, that my payment was not acceptable. I then had to telephone the Processing Office in Tipperary to get an explanation as none was provided in the correspondence apart from one line which stated - 'The amount remitted was less than the fixed charge amount.' According to the administration section of the Fixed Charge Processing Office, 28 days from the 2nd April is actually 29th April if you start your count on 2nd April. Perhaps it would be better if An Garda Siochana would specify the due date of payment in future correspondence to avoid what could be described as opportunism on the part of State. Zita Valaitiene, Navan.