Madam, – Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey has announced a new style driving licence (Home News, December 28th), displaying the holder’s “name, address, date of birth”. Current licences also show the holder’s place of birth (for what reason, I don’t know). Will this now be dropped? Some people use their driving licence as ID to enter Ireland from the UK without a passport. Irish law says they can do this only if they were born in the UK or Ireland, because this is the only information displayed on the licence.
Irish citizens born abroad and naturalised citizens may not travel using a driving licence because the card (oddly) does not state nationality. Since the 2004 citizenship referendum, place of birth alone no longer guarantees the holder is Irish and so no one born since that date will ever be allowed to travel using a licence.
Perhaps this is a good opportunity to fix this anomaly and write the holder’s nationality on the licence instead of place of birth. – Yours, etc,