Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Leader to invite the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications to come to the House or, if he is not available, to make a statement on the issue of renewal of driving licences.This is a minefield at the moment and it is very difficult for people to renew their licences. One can be out of the country and get a passport online but one cannot renew one's driver licence online. I ask the Minister to have a serious look at this because someone from my county of Mayo got an appointment to renew their licence in Citywest, while another got one in Sligo. When we have county lockdowns, people should not have to travel from one county to another, but having to travel from Mayo to Dublin to renew one's driver licence in this day and age is absolutely ridiculous and shambolic. I proposed to the former Minister, Shane Ross, that post offices be brought in as an agent to renew licences and that local people could go into their local post office and renew their driver licences. He did not see fit to do anything in that area. I am asking the Minister to make a statement on this issue or to come into the House because it is very difficult for people to renew their licences. There are people working all over the world who are caught away from home in various countries who cannot come home. They have to renew their licences and they cannot do so unless they physically go to one of those licensing shops. I ask that the Minister treat this as a matter of urgency.