James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this very important matter. I acknowledge his ongoing work and dedication to building relationships with legislators in other jurisdictions, working with both the Irish community and the broader community in other areas. This question is very much a thematic of his approach and I know that does not happen by accident but by hard work and diligence. These connections are not made organically but happen because of the investment of time, effort and resources. I acknowledge the Senator's ongoing work in that regard.

I will set out the context for driver licensing law, how it is set up and how it relates to the three jurisdictions of interest in the question: the United States of America, Australia, and Canada. First, Irish driver licensing law operates within a framework of EU law and the EU and we have a place in that wider system. The driver licensing legislation, therefore, is one with which all member states must comply and is common across member states. Notwithstanding that however, Ireland can enter into bilateral licence exchange agreements with countries outside the EU and EEA. We have a common framework within the EU but we can and do enter into bilateral agreements with other countries.

Entering into a driving licence exchange agreement with a country outside of the EU, however, is not a straightforward matter and neither is it a matter of political will. If everything we wanted to do in these Houses was a matter of political will, I suspect a great deal would be done much faster. We must follow the regulations that apply particularly in something as important as road safety and consistency of standards on our roads.

To reach a bilateral agreement, the most important element is ensuring that the other jurisdiction applies standards for obtaining a licence which are compatible and comparable with our own, that we have a common approach, and that their and our standards are aligned. If the other jurisdiction does not meet these standards, no agreement is possible, no matter how desirable an agreement with that jurisdiction may be. From our the Irish side, the Road Safety Authority, RSA, perform that comparison or analysis of the standards in other jurisdictions to see whether they are compatible with ours.

With regard to Canada, the Senator will be pleased to learn, or perhaps he is already aware, that we have exchange agreements with seven of the ten provinces of Canada. These are: Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Ontario and Saskatchewan. Seven of those ten are in agreement with us in the Canadian provinces. Ireland generally issues the equivalent categories of AM and A1 licences for motorbikes and B for cars in exchange for the Canadian licences.

On Nova Scotia, we are reviewing the driving test standards against ours at the moment and we are hopeful of reaching such an agreement. That will be an eighth province if that is added to the list. No other province is currently under review but the RSA has invited each Canadian province to engage with us with the intention of entering into further bilateral agreements but, unfortunately, as at this time, other provinces have not sent for the information that is required and have not engaged in that process. There is an open invitation for them to do so and perhaps the Senator might use his good offices to encourage them to do that. I am sure he will do that after this debate.

Ireland has a driving licence exchange agreement with Australia. All categories of driving licence can be exchanged, as long as they are compatible with an Irish equivalent. An automatic licence is the default licence issued, unless the licence holder subject to the exchange can prove they passed their driving test in a manual transmission vehicle. We already have a good working arrangement with Australia and I hope that would be quite satisfactory to most people.

The RSA has previously explored reaching agreement, or exchange, or an agreement in principle, with the USA. The difficulty is that US licensing operates at state rather than federal level. Rather than there being one jurisdiction we are engaged with, there are 50 different systems, all with widely varying standards, road safety performance, metrics and so on. Some have road fatality rates that are not acceptable in an Irish or EU context. The difficulty is that agreement with any one state would also mean taking into account the exchange relationships that state might have with the other 49 states. There are interstate relationships and understandings within the US where, if we entered into agreement with one particular state, we may unwittingly become bound by agreements with other states who might have standards below what we would expect in this country.

That is the difficulty, unfortunately, with the United States. The RSA, therefore, determined that such an agreement was not possible without, frankly Senator, endangering road users in Ireland because of the gap in standards.

I am open to making progress on that as I understand the Senator is also and if that is something we can explore. Perhaps with the future US administration, I would be happy to engage, but not just on my side. That is the position as it stands now for the Senator and I thank him for raising this important matter.