Driver Licences
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-29
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Jerry Buttimer (FG), Cork South-Central

I do not disagree with the roadmap; the question is how you get to the end of the road. What we cannot do - and if we were to do so, the Deputy would come in here and excoriate me - is compromise on road standards and safety. We must engage. That is the one thing we will do. I will take back to the RSA and the Department the need to go through the report and meet with the group. They are fine people. I know them. Larry McCarthy, the former president of the GAA, has been on to me and I have spoken to him about this. We have seen an increase in fatalities on our roads in recent years and we cannot relax standards in that regard. We must ensure that the driving licence regime is robust and can stand up. I do not think any of us want to relax standards, and the report is very clear on that. We must ensure, where possible, that anybody who has passed a practical driving test to Irish standards obtains an Irish licence. Again, however, this is not as straightforward as we think. I am happy to advocate and to continue to ensure, as we have done in the programme for Government, that we have that reciprocal arrangement such that road safety and keeping Irish roads safe are the priority for all of us. Linked to the campaign about bringing people home, we must be able to ensure that anyone who obtains an Irish licence has passed a practical roads driving test that is up to our standards.
I will work with the Deputy. There is more that unites us than divides us.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:08+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-29