Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The right to water is a fundamental one. It is hard to believe that this community is going through this experiences and is struggling to resolve its case. Hopefully, we can have the same kind of feedback from and correspondence with Mayo County Council and get a similar result to what which we achieved with Tipperary County Council.

No. P00040/23 relates to 17 years being the legal age limit to drive a car. It is from Mr. Bartosz Szczesny. I think I pronounced his name correctly this time. The petition is about how people should be allowed to operate cars on public roads from the age 16 in Ireland. The updated information we have is that the secretariat wrote to the Departments of Justice and Transport and received the following responses. The Department of Justice stated: "The development and implementation of road traffic legislation and policy, including the matters raised in your correspondence falls within the remit of the Department of Transport."

As such, it is recommend that the query be addressed to that Department. Second, the Department of Transport stated:

Thank you for your correspondence of 2 February in relation to the petition received by your office, No: P00040-24 from Mr Bartosz Szczesny, entitled "16 years of age legal limit to drive a car".

The minimum age at which a person can hold a driving licence or learner permit in Ireland is 17. Irish driver licensing operates within a framework of EU law that sets out the legislation with which all member states must comply. The current EU Directive is Directive 2006/126/EC of 20 December 2006 on driving licences, which was transposed into Irish law by the Road Traffic (Licensing of Drivers) Regulations 2006 (SI 537 of 2006), as amended.

The recommendation is that the correspondence from the Department of Transport be forwarded to the petitioner for comment within 14 days. Do members have any views? Is that agreed?