Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I am taking this adjournment debate on behalf on my colleague, the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Leo Varadkar, who unfortunately cannot attend the Chamber this evening. I thank Senator Daly for the opportunity to address this issue today.

The Minister is aware that concerns have been raised that Irish citizens in Canada are unable to drive there on their Irish driving licences, owing to the fact that there is currently no mutual recognition arrangement between Ireland and Canada regarding driver licensing. There has been communication on this matter with the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs. The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport is sympathetic to the position of Irish citizens in this regard and has asked the Road Safety Authority, the body dealing with driver licensing matters, to explore the issues concerned. He also understands that the Irish embassy in Canada has been in touch with the authorities in the Canadian provinces to see if they are interested in reaching some form of agreement. As Senator Daly pointed out, driver licensing operates at a provincial rather than national level in Canada. Preliminary indications of interest from the Canadian authorities have been very positive.

However, the Minister believes it is important to remember that facilitating the Irish abroad is not the only consideration at issue here. Any mutual recognition arrangement would mean that Irish residents in Canada could exchange their driving licences for Canadian ones and that Canadian residents in Ireland could exchange their licences for Irish ones. The Irish Government, and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport in particular, must take into account at all times the standards and qualifications required for people to be able to drive on our roads. For this reason, any driver licence exchange relationships entered into are always preceded by detailed study and comparison of the licence system in the other state as against the Irish system to ensure that the two systems are compatible. By definition, the Minister cannot guarantee what the outcome of such a comparison would be. While he would be very happy to be able to reach an agreement with Canadian authorities in this matter, he cannot prejudge whether such an arrangement will turn out to be feasible.

A further consideration to bear in mind is that Irish driver licensing rules operate within the framework of an EU-wide licensing system. The criteria essential for recognition of licences from other countries are testing and licensing regimes which meet the requirement of the ED directive on driver licences. On this basis Ireland recognises licences from and has mutual recognition and exchange of licence arrangements with other EU member states and a number of other jurisdictions, where research and discussion has shown that the standards operating in those jurisdictions match those here.

The Minister awaits with interest the outcome of the RSA's examination of Canada's licensing systems against this background. He hopes that it will be possible to reach

agreement, but must caution that agreement is only possible if we can be satisfied that those who would be allowed to drive on our roads as a result of such agreement are indeed qualified to a standard acceptable within this jurisdiction.