Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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360. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if his attention has been drawn to the fact that many over 70s have not received their licence renewal packs in the post and are having difficulties in trying to get through to the National Driver Licence Service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44937/20]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Driving licence renewal packs are generally issued approximately one month before renewal date. The last renewal packs for driving licences were issued in early January for driving licences expiring in February.

A driving licence extension was announced on 24 February 2021 therefore renewal packs for driving licences were not issued for the month of March.

The extension will apply to different groups of licence holders including those who benefited from extensions in 2020. The change is applied as follows-

Any licence holder, who has not already renewed, and whose licence expired between 1 March 2020 and 31 May 2020 will have a new expiry date of 1 July 2021.

Any licence holder, who has not already renewed, and whose licence expired between 1 June 2020 and 31 August 2020 will have thirteen months (which includes the previous extension) added to their expiry date. By way of example a licence which expired on 31 August 2020 will have a new expiry date of 30 September 2021.

Any licence holder, who has not already renewed and whose licence expiry date is between 1 September 2020 and 30 June 2021 will have an extra ten months added to their expiry date. By way of example a licence which expires on 30 June 2021 will have a new expiry date of 30 April 2022.

It is expected that the next driving licence renewal reminders to be issued for the month of July will issue approximately two months in advance of the renewal date.