Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 2 December 2014
592. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the reasons for the establishment of the national driving licence service; and the reason the conversion to plastic driver's licences cannot be dealt with online or by post. [45989/14]
View answerDriving licence provision was centralised as the National Driver Licensing Service (NDLS) under the Road Safety Authority (RSA) in 2013. This was done under the terms of the Road Safety Authority (Commercial Vehicle Roadworthiness) Act 2012. The reasons for centralising the service were rehearsed and debated thoroughly in both Houses during the passage of the Bill. I am happy to summarise them here. The Deputy may wish to consult the record of the debate for further details.
The review of the driver licence service was prompted by the requirement in an EU Directive to introduce a plastic card form of driving licence with effect from January 2013. The decision to centralise driver licence provision was taken following a study of the costs of options for the provision of the service. This showed that significant savings could be achieved through a centralised service, as opposed to the then system of provision through local authorities, which involved many duplications of functions.
The reason for requiring people to apply in person rather online or by post is ID security. The NDLS is intended to operate to the Government SAFE (Standard Authentication Framework Environment) 2 level of ID security. This requires a face-to-face authentication of ID, and digital image capture on-site.
Once a person has had their ID authenticated to SAFE 2 standard, they do not need to appear in person again when renewing or replacing their licence.
