The automatic right to ride mopeds which motorists enjoy when they pass their car driving test will be scrapped under new EU rules.
Currently, Irish motorists who hold a full car driver's licence are able to ride motor-cycles up to 50cc without having to pass a further test.
However, after a vote by the European Parliament's Transport Committee to amend a draft driving licence directive, that privilege will be withdrawn.
The move could force some car drivers who use their mopeds to commute through busy city centre traffic to leave their mopeds at home and find alternative transport - or take an additional motorcycle test. The fears are that many such motorists will opt to remain in their cars.
The move would also prevent the popular practice of renting mopeds when on holiday in other countries.
The draft directive, intended to harmonise licences throughout the EU and improve road safety, was proposed by the European Commission in 2003. Although it will apply only to those who pass their test following its implementation in 2009, concerns are already being raised that, as traffic congestion worsens, any move to restrict drivers from using alternative transport would be counterproductive.
Despite these concerns, the Transport Committee's proposals were adopted into the draft directive on their first reading during a European Parliament Plenary Session in Strasbourg earlier this month.
There is no doubt that the harmonisation of licences is needed. More than 80 different driving licence models with different entitlements and validity periods are currently held by the EU's 200 million motorists, 30 million of whom are motorcyclists.
Until the vote by the Transport Committee, the directive had received the widespread backing of various motor industry bodies, including the Motorcycle Industry of Europe (ACEM). However, since the vote, ACEM has condemned the amendments to the directive as "restrictive, bureaucratic and more confusing for motorists".
Jacques Compagne, secretary general of ACEM, said: "The real effect of these proposals will be to make motorcycling less accessible. It will negative effects on individual mobility and urban congestion."
The Transport Committee defended the amendments stating: "Accident figures suggest the need for the introduction of a new category for mopeds. In some members states very young riders (as young as 14) are allowed to ride mopeds.
"At the same time, European road accident statistics indicate a highly increased risk of accident involvement by very young road users."
Further changes proposed by the draft directive include the phasing in of an EU-wide mutually recognised, plastic credit-card style driver's licence that is less able to be fraudulently reproduced due to the additional, but optional, inclusion of a microchip. Standardised licence durations and categories will also be introduced.