Road safety campaigners have sharply criticised Minister of State for Transport Seán Canney over the failure to introduce “crucial” legislation he hoped would be enacted before the Oireachtas summer recess.
The death toll on roads in the State has reached 100, meaning 10 more fatalities than at the same time last year, and advocates have expressed their anger at the delay in introducing the National Vehicle and Driver File (NVDF) Bill.
The NVDF, a database maintained by the Department of Transport, is the central register of vehicles and drivers.
The legislation is intended to ensure gardaí involved in roads policing will have full access on their mobility apps to the NVDF including motorists’ driving licence photographs.
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Measures include sharing all collision data by gardaí and the Department of Transport with local authorities. This would enable investment and infrastructure to target areas where collisions are more prone to occur.
Provisions also include the abolition of the requirement on motorists to display a tax disc on their car as gardaí have digital access to such information.
Road safety campaign group Parc said it was very disappointed at the continued delay with the legislation.
“I’m heartbroken that yet again I’ve listened to the powers that be and believed every word,” co-founder Susan Gray said.
“Gardaí can’t confirm a motorist’s identity because they cannot access real-time information and dangerous drivers are driving away.”
In February during a Dáil debate on road safety, the Minister had said “the National Vehicle and Driver File Bill is a priority for the current legislative term. I aim to see it enacted before the summer recess”.
The legislation was approved in July 2024. Then minister for transport Eamon Ryan and minister of state James Lawless approved the Roads Bill to provide for information sharing with local authorities.
They also approved the NDVF Bill for the abolition of the requirement to display a motor tax disc and the strengthening of General Data Protection Regulations to allow gardaí access to vehicle and driver data including motorists’ driving licence photographs.
The two Bills were subsequently merged and approval given in April last year for the general scheme of the combined legislation.
In May 2025, Fine Gael TD Emer Currie questioned Canney about the Bill’s status and was told it had been sent for drafting and “subject to the approval of the Oireachtas, it is anticipated that the Bill will be enacted by year-end”.
The Dublin West TD said on Friday she hoped to see the Bill “in the Dáil in the early weeks of the autumn”. She described access for local authorities to road collision data as “one of its most significant provisions”.
“Local authorities need reliable data to identify collision hotspots, target safety improvements and help prevent future accidents,” she said.
Social Democrats transport spokesman Aidan Farrelly called for a “ramp-up in action”.
He said it was clear “the Department of Transport doesn’t have any sort of grasp on road safety” and was ”not proactively addressing this crisis” despite road deaths “getting steadily worse since the historic low in 2021″.
The Minister and his office have been contacted for a response.
