Denis Landy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I wish to pass on my sympathies to the McEntee and Barry families on their recent bereavements.

I would like to welcome the introduction of the new driving licence system. The system, which will bring us into line with the EU, comes into force today. However, I want to take issue with the centralisation of the system within the Road Safety Authority. I would like to ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport whether the authority has the capacity to carry out this work. Will this be another case of work of this nature being subcontracted? Has this system been proof-tested? Does the authority have all the resources it needs to issue these licences throughout the country, as it will be required to do, in effect, from September of this year? Are we about to witness another SUSI scenario? I have to take issue with what is being done because it is another example of responsibility for a local government function being given to a centralised body even though the existing system was working very well. When the Minister is brought to the House, I would like him to clarify whether the new system will affect the small amount of additional business that the current system generates for rural pharmacists across the country when local people go into such businesses to have photographs taken for driving licences. If this is the case, I would like a change to be made to the new system. Rural pharmacies, like all small businesses in rural Ireland, are doing everything they can to ensure they survive. My office in Carrick-on-Suir is two doors down from a pharmacy. Those who go into that pharmacy to get photographs for passports and driving licences provide a major part of its business. If the Minister intends to take this business away by imposing restrictions that require these photographs to be taken centrally, I suggest that such restrictions should be removed. I am looking for clarity on the issue.