Vol. 441 No. 1
100 Mr. Harte asked the Minister for the Environment if he will enter into an agreement with the United States authorities which will enable an American citizen living in Ireland to obtain a driving licence without having to sit a driving test and an Irish citizen going to live in the United States to be entitled to the same facilities.
Sub-article 29 (6) of the Road Traffic (Licensing of Drivers) Regulations, 1989 enables me to declare any State to be a recognised State for the purposes of the Regulations; persons with driving licences issued in any such State may then exchange them for Irish licences without having to pass a driving test in this country. I have not declared the USA to be a recognised State because I am not satisfied that the driver testing regimes there meet the standards prescribed in the EU Directive on driving licences. Additionally, in most States of the USA, licences do not distinguish between drivers who passed their driving tests in vehicles with automatic transmission and drivers who qualified in vehicles with manual transmission; this arrangement would also conflict with the requirement of the Directive.
I understand that, in general, Irish licence holders may exchange their licences for American licences.
