Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The penalty I paid was that certain penalty points I had on my licence continued. The expiration of the three-year period was frozen for the period I did not have a licence, naturally and logically enough. I was looking forward to penalty points going off my licence at a certain date, only to realise that date was delayed by a considerable period because, without knowing it, I did not have an up-to-date driver's licence. I would like to know the answer to that question because it would be unfair to prosecute the owner of a car who allowed in good faith a person to drive, believing him or her to be licensed on the basis he or she had been in the past, where that licence had expired, perhaps without the person even knowing it. I would be interested in hearing a bit more about what possible defences exist around that provision of the Bill.