Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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341. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport further to Parliamentary Question No. 480 of 17 October 2017, the progress that has been made to reduce the burden facing the diaspora when applying for a locally issued driver licence (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18933/21]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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A person with a full but non-exchangable driving licence must go through the normal driver learning process but can avail of the shorter Essential Driver Training of 6 lessons instead of the usual 12. This provision has been in place since November 2018. Such an applicant also does not have to be a learner permit holder for the usual minimum of 6 months before taking a driving test.

All EU driving licences are exchangeable when a person moves from one Member State to another. In the case of non-EU jurisdictions, we may make bilateral agreements on licence exchange. These are not a straightforward matter, and reaching them is not a matter of political will. They can be made only when the relevant authorities in each jurisdiction have studied and compared the two licensing regimes, so that each side can be satisfied that they are compatible. On the Irish side, this task is undertaken by the Road Safety Authority (RSA).

Since 2018, Ireland has entered into exchange agreements with Saskatchewan, Canada (May 2019, Alberta, Canada (March 2020) and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (December 2020).