Drivers to carry licences from January

All drivers will be obliged from tomorrow to carry their licences with them when driving or accompanying provisional licence holders.

The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, announced yesterday that he had signed the necessary order making it an offence from January 1st for any person to drive without being in a position to produce their licence on request from a garda.

The offence will not initially carry any penalty points. However, once the points system is fully operational later next year, failure to carry a licence will be penalised by one penalty point on payment of a fixed charge fine, or three on conviction in court.

In the meantime, offenders can be prosecuted under the Road Traffic Acts and fined up to €800 on conviction.

Under the order, it will also be an offence to fail to submit a licence within 10 days to a Garda station when so requested.

Mr Brennan said the introduction of the requirement to carry a licence "will enhance road safety by instilling in drivers a more responsible attitude to driving generally. It will also assist the gardaí in the operation of a range of road safety measures, including the penalty points system."

The Minister added he was committed to introducing a credit card-sized driving licence by the middle of next year in order to facilitate compliance with the law.

A spokesman for Mr Brennan confirmed that his Department planned to charge a toll for use of the new Monasterevin bypass in Co Kildare on the main Dublin-Cork route. The charge would be the first "State toll" in that the €120 million bypass is being fully funded by the Exchequer, unlike other toll roads which have been part-funded by private investors.