Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

On behalf of the Minister for Transport, the Minister is not aware of the difficulty that may have arisen from the current driver licensing arrangements that apply to former members of the Garda Síochána. The Road Traffic Act 1961 requires that a person must hold a driving licence in order to drive a mechanically propelled vehicle in a public place. In order to obtain a driving licence the Road Traffic (Licensing of Drivers) Regulations 1999 require that documentation accompanying an application to a licensing authority for a driving licence must include a certificate of competency to drive. Normally, such a certificate is obtained when a person successfully undergoes the driving test. In the case of a former member of the Garda Síochána, such a certificate of competency is not required to be submitted with an application for a driving licence, in certain circumstances.

An application for a driving licence from a former member of the Garda Síochána does not require a certificate of competency arising from the successful completion of the driving test, where the applicant is a person who, as a member of the Garda Síochána within a period of five years prior to the date of the application, held a certificate issued by or on behalf of the Assistant Commissioner, training, in the Garda Síochána to drive vehicles of the category to which the application relates and whose application is accompanied by a certificate by or on behalf of the said Assistant Commissioner that the person is competent to drive vehicles of that category. I assume if the person to whom Senator Browne referred made an appropriate application to the Assistant Commissioner, if he had experience in the relevant category, he would receive it. However, as his exclusive experience was in the area of motorcycles and that might have created a difficulty in his particular case.

The application for a driving licence must be made to the licensing authority in whose functional area the person ordinarily resides. It is a matter for the appropriate licensing authority to determine the eligibility of a person for a driving licence and to issue licences.

The Minister is not aware of any particular problem in regard to the processing of driving licence applications in respect of former members of the Garda Síochána who hold valid certificates issued by or on behalf of the Assistant Commissioner, training, by licensing authorities. If there are problems about which the Senator is aware, perhaps he could forward the relevant details to the Minister for Transport.