Denis Landy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

A number of speakers have supported Senator Mary Ann O'Brien on the issue of town centres and the retail sector. I would like to support that, but I believe town centres have not died yet and that there are tangible and real ways we can help. I wish to raise one of these ways this afternoon, one I raised about three months ago, namely, the proposal by Government to centralise the issuing of new credit card style driving licences. The effects of this could be the loss of up to 4,000 jobs in small towns among pharmacists and professional photographers.

The Road Safety Authority was charged with rolling out the new system, which will come into play in September. It went to tender on the system and a Swiss based company, SGS, won the tender. Initially, this company agreed photographs could be taken at local level, in chemist shops and by local photographers, and sent to the company with the driving licence applications. However, now confusion reigns on the issue, but everybody seems to have gone to ground, including the chief executive of the Road Safety Authority. This is not good enough. This same system was tried in France and the SGS centralised system was scrapped because of public opinion.

We have a real and tangible opportunity to save jobs in small towns in rural Ireland by allowing photographs for the purposes of the new service to continue to be taken locally. I am asking the Leader to call on the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Leo Varadkar, to provide clarity and direction for the Road Safety Authority on this issue. This is an example of something we could do to ensure small towns in rural Ireland do not die.