Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 December 2015
646. Deputy Jack Wall asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his views on correspondence (details supplied) regarding an application for a driver certificate of professional competence licence by a person (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45019/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs Minister, I have no power to intervene in individual cases. I can however comment more generally on the legislation in this area.
The CPC system came into operation in Ireland in 2008, through Statutory Instrument No. 359 of 2009, which represents the transposition into Irish law of EU Directive 2003/59/EC. The legislation created a regime under which new professional drivers would have to acquire a CPC by qualifying through a series of tests. In order to retain the CPC, they must also undergo 35 hours of periodic retraining over a 5-year period. Under regulation 11 of S.I. No 359 of 2009, a person who was a professional driver and held a full licence for a truck (including category C, among others) issued before 10 September 2009 was automatically entitled to a CPC without being required to pass the new tests. These are the so-called 'grandfather rights.' People in the latter position were required to undergo the mandatory 35 hours of retraining over a 5-year period in order to retain their CPC.
It is not clear from the information provided how the law in this case affects your consistuent. If he held his full licence in category C before 10 Septmber 2009 and continued to hold it, he would have been automatically entitled to a CPC, but would by now (more than 5 years since that date) have had to renew it, based on the mandatory retraining. If he held a category C licence at some time in the past but had let it lapse, and was retested in order to get a category C licence again after 10 September 2009, the 'grandfather rights' would not apply.
