Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Question 688: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if his attention has been drawn to the fact that a lack of mutual recognition of driver's licences exists between Ireland and the Canadian province of Quebec; if his further attention has been drawn to the fact that this lack of mutual recognition is causing many Irish immigrants their jobs in Quebec; his plans to rectify this problem; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31672/12]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Question 689: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport in view of the fact that thousands of Irish persons, including 5,000 on the work experience programme are entering Canada each year, his plans to assist Irish community organisations in Montreal that are campaigning to secure an agreement with the Quebec provincial authorities to recognise Irish driving licences [31674/12]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Question 690: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the position regarding the efforts to secure recognition of the Irish driving licence in the Canadian province of Quebec [31676/12]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 688 to 690, inclusive, together.

The system of driver licensing in Ireland operates within the framework of EU law. As a result, we have driver licence exchange relationships with other EU Member States. We also have driver licence exchange relationships with a number of other jurisdictions around the world. We establish these relationships only after detailed study and comparison of the licensing systems leads us, and the authorities in the other jurisdiction concerned, to the conclusion that their systems and ours have compatible standards.

Unfortunately it has not been possible to reach agreement on driver licence exchanges with some countries with which Ireland has close historic ties,. This is because in some of these countries licences are issued not according to a single national system but at provincial or state level, with each province or state setting its own driver licensing criteria.

I have however received a number of representations in relation to the exchange of driver licences with Canada and am having the matter re-examined to determine if a change of approach would be possible.