National Vehicle and Driver File, Road Traffic and Roads Bill 2026: Second Stage
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-17
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Emer Currie (FG), Dublin West

I thank the Minister of State for being here and introducing this Bill. I will start by acknowledging the 134 deaths this year and the families who have lost their loved ones.
I welcome the Bill. There are a number of practical changes in it that I support. It removes the outdated requirement to display a paper motor tax disc, reflecting the fact that gardaí can now check tax status electronically through automatic numberplate recognition. That is a great positive. It strengthens Check My Vehicle, giving people buying a second-hand car better access to official information on a vehicle's tax and roadworthiness status. It allows local authorities to access collision data so they can identify dangerous locations and better target road safety improvements. This is critical to all our communities. I think we have all been in positions where we have flagged areas that are potential black spots for accidents. Anything we can do to join up all the agencies involved in road safety is a positive.
The Bill also allows mobile camera van operators to provide certificate evidence rather than routinely attending court. I will speak about court efficiency later but, obviously, that is very much an improvement. Importantly, it allows a jury to return a verdict of careless driving where somebody has been charged with dangerous driving but the evidence supports the lesser offence. This reform arises from Mr. Justice Haughton's report into the tragic death of Shane O'Farrell.
There is a significant gap in our road traffic enforcement system that I want to focus on today. It will not be a surprise to the Minister of State, and I thank him for his Department's engagement with me on this issue. It relates to court penalty points, which I have raised with him before. When a court imposes penalty points, we should be able to say with certainty that the sanction actually reaches that driver's record, and at present we cannot. Today's debate is about the national vehicle and driver file. I know Deputies are coming to this debate with road safety in general in mind, but I am trying to focus on the NVDF.
As the Minister of State knows, I have been pushing the issue of recording court penalty points since I started to engage with Susan Gray of PARC Road Safety Group. The figures for 2024 that the Department worked on show that almost half of court-issued penalty points were not fully captured on the national vehicle and driver file. It is important to put those figures in context. They include Irish licence holders, foreign licence holders and people who do not hold a driving licence at all. We know that a certain number of court penalty points are not going to get to the NVDF. At the same time, the Department's own analysis found that 19% of unmatched court penalty point offences in 2024 and 2025 could have been matched to an existing driver record and that potentially represents about 1,500 penalty points per year. This is particularly serious because the NVDF is the database that the Garda and motor insurers rely on to establish a driver's status. The system works much better when an offence is dealt with through fixed charge notices because the driver number is captured from the start. The serious weakness arises when the cases go through the courts. People can arrive in court, they may not produce their driver licence and their driver number may not be collected. The Department and the RSA are subsequently left with the task of trying to match the driver numbers with the court sanction, that is, to match it to the correct record. This is particularly concerning because penalty points are cumulative and a driver reaching 12 points, or seven as a learner or novice driver, should be disqualified. I have had assurances from the Department that those cases have been identified and dealt with. However, the fact that the Department's analysis identified cases that could have been matched in the area of penalty points demonstrates why we need to fix the underlying process. This has to be about making the process as effective and efficient as possible. I raised this with the Minister at the transport committee earlier in the year. He also agreed that a fifth of potential court penalty points not being applied was unacceptable, and that the Department can match cases after the event and could continue to do so. I would welcome the Minister of State's feedback today as to whether that is happening.
Susan Gray and I have also met with the Courts Service and the Department of Transport on this. I welcome the commitment from the Courts Service to work directly with An Garda Síochána to capture the driver number at the earliest possible stage and carry it throughout the case. I am looking for an update on that today because this Bill gives us the opportunity to clarify that process in court for capturing driver numbers and ensure that information follows the case to the NVDF. First, we should capture the driver number at the beginning of the process, carry it through on the summons into court and then onto the NVDF systems. Second, if necessary, we should change the law so that somebody who has been summonsed for a traffic offence must produce their driving licence or learner permit, and so that the courts staff have the authority they need to capture that information. Third, we should continue to examine historical unmatched cases where the information exists to identify the correct driver.
There is another practical issue with the NVDF that I want the Minister of State to address today. Garda members carrying out roadside checks should be able to access the driving licence photograph held on the national vehicle and driver file through their Garda mobility devices. This is something I have been raising for quite a while, and we have had feedback that it is being considered. It would lead to more accuracy, which is essential. In the past there have been mismatches and this would address that. The NVDF contains an enormous of information that can assist enforcement. If a garda stops somebody at the roadside, being able to verify not only the details of the licence but also the photograph associated with that licence would be another useful tool in confirming the person presenting themselves is the actual licenceholder.
I want to raise the future ownership of the driver file itself. There was a statement on 29 July that, as part of the reform of the Road Safety Authority, ownership of the driver file element of the NVDF will transfer from the Department of Transport to the RSA. The Department has said it is intended to give the RSA end-to-end ownership of driver-related systems and that it will also include the new offence management system being developed. I understand the logic of consolidating driver services, but the driver file is not simply an administrative database. It is a critical part of our road safety enforcement infrastructure. It is the brain of all the information we retain on drivers, from disqualifications to penalty points and driver numbers. Given the issues we have identified with penalty points and the matching of records, I am asking the Minister of State to set out clearly why he is transferring ownership to the RSA and why he believes that is the right approach. At the moment, I do not quite understand the rationale. We have to join the dots between An Garda Síochána, the Courts Service, the Department of Transport and the RSA. Some information on that would be good.
In my remaining time I will speak to Jax's law. As the Minister of State knows, Deputy Barry Ward and I introduced that Bill to the House on First Stage yesterday. Saoirse Aylward was here, as were Jax's father, Nathan, Colleen Langan, who campaigns for her aunt Róisín, and Susan Gray of PARC. While Saoirse had been through a horrific ordeal, she said she had been retraumatised by the justice system and felt that while she was recognised as a victim, the loss of Jax was not. We are asking the Minister of State to examine our legislation. We think we have come up with a viable solution. We hope that as part of this Bill he could consider an amendment to address what we believe is a gap in the law, and look at both recording and publishing the data on that loss of pregnancy in road victims information.
As I said, I believe this is a positive Bill. I thank the Minister of State and know he has put a lot of work into it. It is about making the NVDF work harder, better, more effectively and more efficiently. I hope he can take on board some of the ideas and concerns I have presented today.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-17