Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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1609. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the way he intends to bridge the discrepancy between licence renewals taking up to four to six weeks although one is required to produce a licence in a Garda station within ten days of being stopped by the gardaí. [37131/13]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy may be aware, we are currently in a transition period in the operation of driver licensing.   The Road Safety Authority (RSA) formally became the national driver licensing authority in January 2013.  As an interim measure, the local authority motor taxation offices are continuing to process driver licence applications and issue licences on behalf of the RSA.   From November next, the RSA will assume full responsibility for the service and, through contracts with private sector companies, will provide customer interface and processing services. Under the new regime, there will be a target to process driver licence applications within 7 days.

I am aware that there are currently backlogs in processing licences in some local authority areas.  The RSA and the local authorities are actively engaging in efforts to reduce and eliminate them as soon as possible.