Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Offaly, Fine Gael)
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1630. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to reach agreement with the USA to include it on the recognised countries list for the purposes of driver licence exchange; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38959/17]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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The issue of whether driving licence exchange with the USA would be possible has been examined and is, regrettably, not being pursued at this time given the complexities involved.

Driver licensing law is grounded on the principle that people must meet certain defined standards. Irish driver licensing law operates within a framework of EU law, which sets common standards for driver testing across all Member States. On this basis, all EU licences are mutually exchangeable.

In the case of licences issued by non-EU states, we may reach bilateral agreements on exchange. This is not a straightforward matter. The relevant authorities must first compare to two licensing regimes in detail so that each side may be satisfied that they are compatible. On the Irish side, this task is undertaken by the Road Safety Authority (RSA).

The RSA has previously examined the possibility of reaching exchange agreements with the USA. However, US driver licensing operates at state rather than federal level. This means that there are 50 different systems, sometimes with greatly varying standards. Reaching agreement would mean reaching 50 agreements, each of which would have to take account of the arrangements which exist between that state and the other 49. This would not be feasible.