Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

I can confirm that it is an offence not to produce a driving licence. It is the law and practice to allow people time to produce a licence for the reasons suggested by Senator Barrett. People might not be carrying a driving licence. We do not know where the ten-day rule comes from but it has been in place for quite some time. I am open to the idea of having a shorter period but the period proposed in the amendment of two days is too short. A person may have to travel on business the next day and cannot get out of it or may have to go on holidays or to a funeral.

A shorter period than ten days is reasonable but two days is too short and on that basis I am not prepared to accept the amendment. We are developing a plastic driving licence. Production will start next year and we hope to have it in place by 2013. At that point I propose to impose penalty points and on-the-spot fines for people who do not have a new licence with them or in their car.

The problem with a two-day rule is that if the Garda went to the trouble of using the courts and prosecuting someone for not producing his or her license within two days and then he or she turns up in court with the licence or he or she can prove that he or she went to a Garda station on day three, it would be an unnecessary use of court and Garda time.