Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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440. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the number of disqualification orders received from the Courts Service via a weekly file to date in 2025; the number that did not include the driver number of the person, to enable automatic endorsement on driver records; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24395/25]

Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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445. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport further to Parliamentary Question No. 286 of 1 April 2025, the number of Irish licence holders who received a court driving disqualification, but a match could not be made; the number that remained on the shell record for the period of the disqualification; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24400/25]

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 440 and 445 together.

Driving disqualification court order information is sent electronically from the Courts Service to my Department. This information is then endorsed on driver records on the Department's National Vehicle and Driver File (NVDF).

My Department received 2,877 individual court disqualification orders via weekly files between 01 January and 31 March 2025 and of those 2,260 (79%) did not have a driver number.

If a court order cannot be matched automatically against an Irish driver record, the National Driving Licence Service (NDLS), operated by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) undertake a manual search 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. This shell record remains in place for the duration of the disqualification.

It is important to note that some disqualifications are imposed on drivers who do not hold (or may never have held) an Irish licence or drivers who hold foreign licences. Therefore, due to cases like these, it will never be the case that all disqualifications orders will have an NVDF record to be matched to.

It is also the case that some disqualifications are imposed on Irish licence holders, but it is not possible to match these to the appropriate driver record. As the Garda Inspectorate Report explains, the primary cause for this is the failure of the individual to produce their driving licence in court. This matter is the responsibility of An Garda Siochana, the Department of Justice and the Courts Service, but my Department will be supportive of any measures address the issue as it will improve our subsequent ability to match court orders to driver records.

The number of distinct driver records, including shell records, that had driving disqualifications imposed based on court orders received from the Courts Service every year from 2020 to 31 March 2025 is as follows. The shell records include foreign licensed drivers, unlicensed drivers and Irish-licensed drivers where a match has not been made. Please note that some driver records, including shell records, have had multiple disqualifications; the figures represent the number of drivers disqualified.