Pat Gallagher (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

The code of legislation which governs the driving licence system is contained in Part 3 of the Road Traffic Act 1961, as amended by subsequent Road Traffic Acts and regulations made thereunder. Under this code, licensing authorities operating in their functional areas process applications for licences and issue licences. They also keep records of endorsements and disqualifications in the national driver file which they hold jointly with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. Information from this file will be available to the Department of Transport and the road safety authority. Changing the current position would create many practical difficulties and would not improve road safety, as the Government is anxious to do.

The driving licence is also governed by EU directives on driving licences. These specify the format of a driving licence and the content of the driving and theory tests which must be successfully completed before a licence is granted. To transfer the licensing functions from the local authorities to the road safety authority would require a substantial redrafting of the driver licensing provision of the Road Traffic Acts.

The proposed amendment is outside the scope of the Bill and would have to be introduced as an amendment to the Road Traffic Acts. Even if I were disposed to make such a change, I would not be able to do so. Nevertheless, I have no difficulty with the Senator's proposal to introduce an electronic driving licence. I attended an informal meeting in Austria as part of a recent Council of Transport Ministers at which it was agreed in principle to introduce such a licence. I am told it will take 18 months to meet the specifications required to guarantee the security of the microchip that would be inserted in electronic driving licences. Therefore, even if we wished to introduce such a licence, a long lead-in time would be necessary.

EU Transport Ministers are anxious to introduce electronic driving licences as soon as possible but it will take some years. The principle of Senator Paddy Burke's amendment will be acted on, albeit not immediately given the period of 18 months required to meet specifications and guarantee security for electronic driving licences. Eventually, however, a standard driving licence will be introduced throughout the European Union.