Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 5 February 2015
307. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his views regarding facilitating persons who are ordinarily resident in the State, but are unable to renew their driving licence due to being outside the State for an extended period, by renewing driving licences with more than three months left to expire and allowing the licence to be renewed by correspondence or any other means. [5223/15]
View answerThe National Driver Licensing Service (NDLS) under the Road Safety Authority (RSA), normally requires attendance in person at an NDLS centre on one occasion for image capture when renewing a licence. This is part of the SAFE 2 (Standard Authentication Framework Environment) identity verification standard.
However, given the difficulty in cases where people ordinarily resident in Ireland are out of the country for some time, typically for work or study, it was agreed that the requirement to appear in person was an undue burden in these cases. This issue was addressed by a change in regulations last July under the Road Traffic (Licensing of Drivers) (Amendment) Regulations 2014 (S.I. No. 326 of 2014). As a result, people who are normally resident in the State but are abroad for an extended period may apply by post. It is expected that an Irish person residing outside the State for a prolonged period, greater than 1 year, will apply for a licence in the country in which they are living. I do not believe that any further change to the regulations is necessary.
