Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Applicants or licence holders are required under section 27 to declare to the licensing authorities their convictions for any of the offences set out in the Schedule or those listed in Section 26 (3), which relates to serious road traffic offences. This amendment provides that the Minister may specify in regulations other offences which must be notified to the licensing authorities for the purposes of the suitability assessment of all licenceholders and applicants provided for under section 10. These could include summary conviction of the specified offences in the Schedule to the Bill or other offences relating to the activities of the person in respect of providing SPSV services or driving an SPSV. This section relates only to the obligation to make a declaration to the licensing authorities. The licensing authorities are, of course, not limited to this information in assessing the suitability of persons to hold licences. Some examples of relevant convictions which might be of concern in this area would be involvement in organised crime, drug trafficking and so on