Declan Breathnach (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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1305. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to introduce incentives to Irish emigrants returning home from abroad to help them to reintegrate into society, for example, to obtain driving licences and so on; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20003/17]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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The position of returning emigrants in relation to driving licences depends on their particular circumstances.

When an Irish driving licence has lapsed, it may be renewed for up to ten years.  This means that a person who held a valid, full, driving licence on leaving the country and whose licence has lapsed by less than ten years may simply renew their licence on returning.

A second set of circumstances is where returning emigrants have been driving in an EU Member State.  Under EU law, all Member State driving licences are interchangeable.  A person in this set of circumstances may therefore exchange their current licence for the Irish equivalent.

The third category represents people from non-EU states with which we have a bilateral agreement on driving licence exchange.  These people too can exchange their current licence for the Irish equivalent.

This leaves people who have a driving licence from countries outside the EU with which we do not have an exchange arrangement.  People in these circumstances must pass our driving test in order to get an Irish driving licence.  It is worth remembering that driver licensing law exists to set minimum standards which people must meet in order to drive on our roads.  Driving is not a right.  It is a privilege which is earned.  We recognise EU licences because all Member States test drivers to the same standards.  When we reach bilateral agreements on driving licence exchange, it is only after we are satisfied following detailed comparison of the systems that the testing regime in that state is comparable to our own.

I do agree however that we should try where possible to reduce the burden on people coming here with full licences from non-exchange countries. At present, we already allow them a waiver from the usual requirement to be a learner for six months before taking the driving test. The requirement to undergo a programme of 12 ‘Essential Driver Training’ lessons for all learners is currently being reviewed by by my officials to see whether a more limited programme can be tailored to people with full licences from non-exchange countries.I do believe a programme of training would be of benefit, given that these are people used to driving in different conditions and with different laws, but I think that the training requirements could be reduced in such cases.