Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to address this matter, which I am taking on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar.

Many Deputies have raised questions regarding photo capture under the new national driver licensing service run by the Road Safety Authority. This is a good opportunity to address the detail of the matter. The factual basis of what has changed in the area of driver licensing should be clear. Up to this year, driver licences were issued by the motor taxation offices of local authorities. This involved more than 30 different motor taxation offices dedicating staff and resources to the processing of driver licence applications and the issuing of licences. While everybody agrees that the staff in these offices were very committed and did excellent work, this is hardly an optimal way to organise driver licensing.

The EU requirement to introduce a plastic card driving licence from January 2013 means there will be significant changes in the way licences are produced and provides an opportunity to review the entire system for driver licensing. Following on from a study which examined the alternative ways in which driver licensing might be organised, the Government decided in May 2011 to move to a centralised national driver licensing service, and decided that the Road Safety Authority would be given charge of this system.

Centralising the services offers a number of benefits over the old system. It will provide for greater consistency of practice and service across the country. The creation of a single national driver licensing service will provide for greater security and, under the RSA, offer a one-stop shop to the public, from theory test to driving test to licence issue.

It should be stressed that, while the service has been transferred from local authorities, no jobs are being lost in that area, but it means many local authority staff are being freed for redeployment and reassignment within their local authorities. This is very beneficial at local authority level. The new service is expected to be self-financing. All of this should be very welcome in these times when we are looking for opportunities across the board to do more with less.

The legislation to give authority over driver licensing to the RSA was passed in 2012. At the same time, the RSA was working to develop the new driver licensing service. The Departments of Transport, Tourism and Sport, Public Expenditure and Reform and the Environment, Community and Local Government, with the City and County Managers Association, have been involved in assisting the RSA during this process through a group which has met regularly to review progress and assist the RSA in addressing any issue arising. The new system, designed by the RSA, involves three outsourced elements, overseen by a specialised unit based in RSA headquarters in Ballina. The three outsourced elements are a card production facility, a front office for engaging with the customer and a back office to process applications. This system will not be fully up and running until September this year. In the meantime, the motor taxation offices continue to perform front office functions on behalf of the RSA. Deputies may wish to note that during the transition period applicants can still provide their photos as before. Once the new system is fully operational, there will be a different system for providing photo ID. The capture of the photograph is included in the fee for the licence and the SAFE2 ID will be implemented, at which point the only option will be the digital photo taken in the front office network.

Some of the questions received on this issue seem to be based on the impression that there was an award of a contract specifically to provide photos. This is not the case. The RSA advertised three contracts for card production, front office and back office functions. It is understood from the RSA that when it published the request for tenders for the front office functions, it asked tenderers to indicate a preference for scanning or digital capture. All three tenderers went for digital capture, as it provides the most effective, secure and efficient process. I understand the Department of Social Protection follows the same procedure for the new public service card.

It should be emphasised that the operation of the tender processes was a matter for the RSA and that the Minister, Deputy Leo Varadkar, had no involvement in it. The contractors for the front office, back office and card production functions have been procured.

The job of the RSA in designing the new driver licensing service was to provide an optimal service, with value for money. It cannot be expected to design a modern, secure, efficient and up-to-date process without some impact on existing support services. In fairness, I doubt that the Deputy or anyone else would seriously suggest we should not modernise or streamline services, where possible. If doing this has an impact on people who have provided external services to an older and less efficient system, this is not a ground for failing to modernise. Some of the figures received in correspondence for the alleged numbers involved in what some correspondents call the photo ID industry could be disputed. It would be absurd to require it to tailor its service provision to be less than efficient in order to suit a service provider to an older and less efficient system. I again thank the Deputy for raising the matter.

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