Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Question 280: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if his Department has plans to change the regulations in relation to the issuing of a vehicle registration certificate which only permits one name to be issued on the certificate as opposed to two names in the case of a couple purchasing a vehicle; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10900/07]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Section 60 of the Finance Act 1993 provides the legal basis for the records contained in the National Vehicle and Driver File database (NVDF). The NVDF contains the records of keepers of vehicles rather than titled owners and the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government may determine the content of the records. In this regard it is the practice that a vehicle record is limited to one named registered owner (keeper) and joint or multiple owners are not permitted. This approach takes account of judicial comment and decisions by the Courts, that prosecutions for road traffic and other vehicle related offences, including penalty points offences, cannot be successfully obtained against joint or multiple owners. A number of prosecutions have been dismissed on this basis.

The name entered on Vehicle Registration Certificates is extracted from the NVDF records and consequently there are no plans to change the current practice of issuing these Certificates in the name of one registered owner.