Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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252. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will address a query (details supplied) regarding the renewal of a driving licence. [6348/18]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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Driver licences were previously issued for a fixed period - five or ten years depending on the category - plus the unexpired period on the old licence.

As EU law requires fixed periods for certain categories of driving licences, the addition of the unexpired period of the previous licence raised difficulties at EU level, and the EU Commission began infringement proceedings against Ireland.  In order to comply with fixed period of licence validity required by EU law, the Irish regulations in this regard were therefore amended to remove the period of validity of the previous licences.

This was effected by the European Union (Duration of Licences) Regulations 2015 (S.I. No. 176 of 2015), with effect from 31 May 2015.