New driver's licence to be introduced in 2012

A CREDIT CARD-style driving licence with a microchip holding information about the driver is to be introduced next year.

The cards will hold the driver’s photo, name, address, date of birth and licence type, and details of the issuing authority. It will also carry a record of any penalty points or endorsements on the driver’s record. This will allow gardaí at a checkpoint to examine a driver’s record. Currently, if a garda stops a motorist they cannot tell from examining the licence if the driver is disqualified.

The cards will have a number of security features to reduce fraud and counterfeiting. They will also hold information on restrictions such as whether drivers are required to wear glasses or use a hearing aid, or whether they are subject to curfews or a restricted engine size.

The changes are part of a European project to introduce the new licences by January 1st, 2013, to assist cross-border policing of motoring offences and to reduce licence fraud. Disqualifications will be mutually recognised by member states.

Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar said the new licences will be issued to those renewing or receiving their first licence next year but said there will be no obligation on motorists with a paper licence to switch.

“You won’t be required to change but we anticipate there will be interest from people who want the new licences,” he said, partly because – subject to written confirmation – Varadkar has been told Ryanair passengers will be able to use the new licence as a form of identification.

Varadkar said the cost of the new licence would be “between €25 to €30”. The cost of a 10-year paper licence is €25.

The minister also plans to tender for a service provider to centralise the issuing of driver’s licences, he said. Licences are currently issued by local authorities.

“Instead of having 220 people doing them across all these local authorities, we will have around 60 people doing them.”

A spokesman for the Road Safety Authority said the agency was “focused on matching or exceeding the service levels delivered in relation to the issuing of driving licences in respect of the new plastic card licence”.

Varadkar wanted to combine the new licence with a social welfare identify card but said the terms of the EU directive precluded this.

The directive aims to harmonise the 110 different licence formats in the EU and reduce the “widespread phenomenon of driving-licence tourism and fraud”.

Under the new scheme, a driver will be allowed to hold only one driver’s licence from one member state.