Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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607. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the reason people must present themselves when renewing their driver licences; the efficiencies that have been made since October 2013 regarding the length of time one must wait in person to complete the renewal process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28034/14]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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One of the reasons why driver licensing in the National Driver Licensing Service (NDLS), which is operated by the Road Safety Authority (RSA), was centralised was to improve ID security.  The NDLS operates according to the SAFE 2 standard of ID verification.  This requires people to present themselves in person once for ID verification and digital image capture.  When this has been done once, they do not need to present themselves in person again when renewing.

When the NDLS was first introduced in October of 2013, there were teething problems which led to significant delays in processing applications, which at that time could take several weeks.  This in turn led to the rapid build-up of a backlog.  I met with the RSA at the time to discuss the problems and how they could be addressed.  The RSA put in place a number of measures to deal with the problems, including IT improvements, additional training for staff, and additional staff in NDLS offices which were particularly busy.

These measures led to the eventual elimination of the backlog.  The NDLS is now turning around applications which are in order within five days.  There are and always will be problem applications, where it is necessary to revert to the applicant for further information, and these will inevitably take longer.