Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting this Commencement matter. I wish to share a minute and a half of my time with Senator Mulherin.

Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)
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Is that agreed? Agreed.

Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to the House. As a long-standing Member of the House for many years, I am sure he loves coming back to it. I wish him well in his new portfolio and hope he has a long career in that office.

The issue concerns the need for the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to review Government policy relating to the Road Safety Authority tender process for driving licences to allow post offices to act as agents in processing and co-ordinating applications. The issue was raised by Senator Mulherin on the Order of Business some weeks ago and was brought to my attention by Councillor Bernard McGuinness from Culdaff, Inishowen, County Donegal.We have had discussions and debate on the closure of post offices. I know the Minister has championed the cause for the retention of local Garda stations, in particular his local Garda station in Stepaside. I am sure the issue of the local post office is close to the Minister's heart as well. We have seen a number of post offices throughout the country close in the past ten years. That is another service that has been lost by rural communities. Let me give an example from County Mayo. There are two National Driver Licence Service, NDLS, centres where licences are issued, one in Castlebar and the other in Ballina. It is 50 miles from Belmullet to either Castlebar or Ballina. In County Donegal, the two areas where the licences are issued are in Letterkenny and Donegal town. It is a long distance from Culdaff, Malin Head and other parts of Donegal to Letterkenny. The post office network could co-ordinate the licence application, the applicant would complete the application form and have the photographs and the post office would process it and send it to the licensing authority. Were the post office to provide this additional service, this would make the post office more viable in rural communities. We believe this could be taken into account when the tender process for the issuing of licences comes up for renewal.

Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator Paddy Burke for sharing time with me. I welcome the Minister to the Chamber.

I support the motion. Until 2013, vehicle licensing was under the jurisdiction of the local authority before it transferred to the Road Safety Authority. Arising from the arrangement made by the RSA, licences now issue from fewer offices. This causes difficulties, particularly in rural areas. As has been described, people may have to travel 50 miles to go the NDLS centre, a round trip of 100 miles to apply for their licence. They must attend one office as opposed to the many offices of the local authority. Cognisance needs to be taken of the problems posed by the limited number of NDLS centres. People do not have the option of using public transport. I think the post office network is ideally suited to act as agents in respect of driving licences. It has a large network of post offices throughout the country. It does a similar job in regard to the application process for a passport. There is no problem with fraud or in validating the identity of the person, which is assisted by the Garda verifying the individuals who are applying for a passport and the process being handled by the post offices. This has worked very well. We all know the passport is an important document.

We have an opportunity to consider the post office network as an agent for this service. It would be in keeping with Government policy to drive business and stimulate the growth of post offices with real business while at the same time responding to the need in rural Ireland. I urge the Minister to consider this motion, especially in the context of the Road Safety Authority putting the service out to tender.

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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I thank both Senators for raising this very important topic. I thank Senator Burke for his kind words. I seem to be spending more time in this House during my period as Minister than I did when I was a Member. I hope to come back to the Chamber as frequently as necessary.

Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)
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I hope we will see a great deal more of the Minister.

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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I thank the Cathaoirleach. I hope he will. I am sympathetic, as both Senators will know, to the difficulties caused by the closure of the post offices throughout rural Ireland. I was well aware of that during the period of the previous Government. I have not lost those sympathies but this is a subject I have to address in light of the circumstances in which we find ourselves and what has happened since 2011.

The previous Government, of which neither Senator Burke nor I were members as he was above politics at the time and I was in opposition, decided in May 2011 to move from a system under which local authorities issued driving licences to one where a single National Driver Licence Service, NDLS, would operate under the Road Safety Authority. The Government decision was made because it made sense in terms of efficiency, effectiveness and security as well as value for money. At that time, more than 30 local authorities were responsible for issuing driver licences, and this led to duplication, inefficient use of resources, and considerable unevenness in the quality of service provision. The then Government maintained the new system was able to operate in a more streamlined way, while local authorities were able to reassign staff to areas of more pressing concern to them. I am happy to add that no jobs were lost.

The NDLS operates with a central unit in the RSA and three outsourced contractors - a front office to engage with the public, a back office to process applications, and a manufacturer for the plastic card licence. The point raised by Senator Burke, namely, whether An Post might act as front office agents for the NDLS, was raised by a number of Members of both Houses when the legislation for the NDLS was being passed during 2012.

The starting point has to be that the NDLS is about providing a driver licensing service to the public. The three outsourced elements are advertised for tender. The tender processes in each case must comply with rules and guidelines, both national and European. The essence of these rules is that the processes must be open, fair and transparent. We cannot have a situation where tender processes are slanted or prejudged, and I am sure no one intends that we should. Government policy on all tender processes remains that they should be open, transparent, and fair. I therefore expect the RSA, like any agency of the State, to run fair contracting processes which are designed to select the best proposals for any contractor. The aims of any such contracting process for a service to the public must be to ensure a high-quality service will be provided, that the public will get value for money, and that the process by which a contractor is selected is fair and equitable to all those who tender. I am assured that this was the case in all the NDLS contracts.

There is, of course, nothing to prevent An Post applying for the front office contract, and I understand that they did so when it was first advertised. It remains open to An Post to tender to run the service when it comes up for renewal, which I understand is next year or possibly the year after. It is due to come up next year but it can and probably will be postponed until 2018. As the Senator may be aware, under the programme for Government, the Government has committed to establishing the feasibility of offering motor tax services and other State services in post offices.

Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for his reply but it is a typical Civil Service answer. Nothing we said could be interpreted as other than wanting the process to be open, transparent and fair. Nobody is suggesting otherwise. How could the fact the post office would process and co-ordinate the application and send it on to the licensing authority be anything other than open, transparent and fair? The process would be the same throughout the country. The applicants would get their application form in a post office and would get their photographs taken in the same way that people get their photographs taken for passports. They would bring the completed application form to the post office, where it would be checked and then it would be sent to the licensing authority. I think that is a very simple process.

The Minister said that the contract would go out for tender in 2017 or 2018. I would hope at this stage, the post office network, which is in urban as well as in rural areas, would put a tender together to compete for the contract. It would be a simpler process if the post offices were allowed to co-ordinate the applications and send them to the licensing authority.

Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)
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Does the Minister wish to reply?

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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I do not disagree with a great deal of what Senator Burke has had to say. Let us remember there is a contract that goes out to tender. I would encourage the post office network, as he would, to tender.

Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister. I am sure that Senators Burke and Mulherin will revisit this matter.