Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I met the CEO of the RSA about the matter yesterday and I will meet him again in the next few weeks. I will certainly pass on Deputy O’Donovan’s concerns. It is the case that the number of staff provided did not match the demand. The demand was more than anticipated and as a result in the first week there were not enough staff. The issue is now being resolved.

Previously, local authority offices did more than provide licences, they dealt with motor taxation as well and off-the-road declarations among other issues. They tended not to be open at lunch time and they were not open on Saturdays. The same is true of post offices. In many ways that is the reason the contract went elsewhere because a better service could be provided at a much lower cost.

Unless a person’s appearance changes dramatically, a person will have to attend a driver licensing service centre only once in their lives to get their SAFE 2 photograph. It is fair to say that the vast majority of people I know, who either live in rural Limerick, Cork or elsewhere in the country, do drive to the city or go to the main town probably a few times a year and certainly more often than once in their lives. The booking system will allow them to tie in a visit for that purpose onto a shopping trip or other reason for being in the nearest town or city.

That said, I accept Deputy O’Donovan’s basic point that 5% of the population is 250,000 people and they do not have an office proximate to them but there might be potential solutions. One solution could be to provide more part-time centres such as the Deputy mentioned. An alternative solution which could be examined, although I am not sure whether it is possible, would be a mobile centre that could travel to various parts of the country and in particular to isolated areas. People would have advance notice of when the service would be in a particular area a few times a year. It must be borne in mind that in future, people will need such photographs for other forms of ID. I am not sure whether such a system is possible under the current contract but contracts can be amended. I would like to see the new system bed down for a couple of weeks and then we will examine the situation again and see if further changes need to be made.

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