Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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210. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will provide an update on the “exceptional file” also known as the ghost file generated by his Department’s driver and vehicle computer services division; the number of disqualifications received from the Courts Service each year since 2017 that were inputted to the exceptional file due to the fact that the disqualification cannot be matched automatically to a driver on the national driver file database; the number of disqualifications on this exceptional file sent by his Department each year since 2017 to the RSA's outsourced agency (details supplied) in order to try to match the disqualification to a driver; the number of disqualifications on the exceptional file that were successfully matched to a driver each year since 2017 through this process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52722/22]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Driving Disqualification court order information is sent from the Courts Service to the National Driving Licence Service (NDLS), operated by the Road Safety Authority (RSA). This information is then endorsed on driver records on the Department of Transport's National Vehicle and Driver File (NVDF). This was a manual. postal process until recently but the information is now transferred electronically.

If a court order cannot be matched automatically against an Irish driver record, a manual search is carried out by the NDLS to attempt to match the record. In the event that a match cannot be found, a ‘shell’ record is created on the NVDF to track the court order. (The Department does not have a concept of an “exceptional file” or a “ghost file” although unmatched records are sometimes called “exceptions”)

A shell record is required for example to record a disqualification where the driver has a foreign driving licence or never held a Irish driving licence.

The number of distinct driver records that had driving disqualifications imposed based on court orders received from the Courts Service every year from 2017 to 2021 is as follows (Note: some driver records, including shell records, have had multiple disqualifications endorsed):