Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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194. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport further to Parliamentary Question No. 253 of 12 July 2022, if the work has now been completed by his Department and the Road Safety Authority to provide for electronic transfer of driver disqualification details from the Courts to the National Vehicle and Driver File; the proposed date for this new system to go live; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45658/22]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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The project that enables electronic transfer of driver disqualifications details from the Courts Service to my Department's National Vehicle and Driver File (NVDF) has now been successfully completed. The Courts Service have started to use the new electronic interface since early September 2022, and this has replaced the manual process.

The new solution will enhance road safety by ensuring that the NVDF reflects the correct driver disqualification status earlier. The sharing of the information electronically will reduce the time taken to update the NVDF with details of driver disqualifications, improve data accuracy because of the reduction in errors due to manual updating of disqualification notifications and driver records; and reduce operational costs for the RSA and the Court Services. It will also enable such information to be shared with An Garda Síochána more quickly.

Enforcement is a critical tool that acts to modify driver behaviour to reduce risk taking and I commend the collaborative working of the Courts Service, the Road Safety Authority and my own officials in successfully delivering this important project.