Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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377. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if his attention has been drawn to correspondence in respect of driving licence exchanges (details supplied); if he will provide a schedule of jurisdiction that he has developed a licence exchange agreement with and if he has plans to further expand the exchange agreement. [23480/25]

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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A person who is resident in Ireland must have an Irish or EU driving licence to drive here. It is possible to drive in Ireland on a foreign licence under the Geneva Convention, but this only applies to visitors.

Irish driver licensing operates within a framework of EU law - the driver licensing legislation with which all Member States must comply. The standards for testing drivers are set at EU level and all EU driving licences are exchangeable when a person moves from one Member State to another.

Ireland may make bilateral driving licence exchange agreements with non-EU jurisdictions. This is not a straightforward matter. Reaching them is not a matter of political will and the core principle is to ensure the continued safety of Irish road users. Agreements may be made only when the authorities in each jurisdiction have studied and compared the licensing regimes, so that each side is satisfied that they are compatible. For Ireland, this task is undertaken by the Road Safety Authority.

People with a non-exchangeable licence who are resident in Ireland must, in order to drive here, obtain an Irish licence. A person with a full but non-exchangeable licence must go through the normal driver learning process, but can avail of shorter Essential Driver Training of only 6 lessons, instead of the usual 12, and does not have to be a learner for the usual minimum of 6 months before taking a driving test.

One of the commitments of the Programme for Government 2025 is to “Work to facilitate the easier return to Ireland for emigrants, including reciprocal driving licence arrangements with the USA, Australia and Canada”. Ireland has licence exchange agreements with Australia and with seven of the ten Canadian provinces, so holders of these licences may, if resident in Ireland, exchange them for an Irish licence. My Department will be exploring how this Programme for Government commitment might be addressed.

Ireland has licence exchange agreements with the following jurisdictions.

- Australia*

- Canada - Alberta Province* (cars & motorbikes only)

- Canada - British Columbia* (cars & motorbikes only)

- Canada - Manitoba Province* (cars & motorbikes only)

- Canada - New Brunswick* (cars & motorbikes only)

- Canada - Newfoundland and Labrador* (cars & motorbikes only)

- Canada - Ontario* (cars only)

- Canada - Saskatchewan* (cars & motorbikes only)

- Georgia

- Gibraltar

- Guernsey

- Isle Of Man

- Japan

- Jersey

- New Zealand* (cars & motorbikes only)

- Northern Ireland

- Republic of Korea

- South Africa

- Switzerland

- Taiwan (cars & motorbikes only)

- United Kingdom.

*Note for Australia, Canadian provinces and New Zealand: exchanged licences are restricted to automatic transmission unless exchange applicants can prove they passed a test in a manual transmission vehicle.

The RSA is currently reviewing Nova Scotia’s driver testing against Irish driving test standards, with a view to making a recommendation on whether to enter a licence exchange agreement. In addition, the RSA has recommended licence exchange agreements with Moldova and North Macedonia and technical discussions are ongoing.