Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 June 2024
111. Deputy Michael McNamara asked the Minister for Transport the reason a person (details supplied) in County Clare cannot have their drivers licence issued in Irish as opposed to English; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26816/24]
View answerAll enquires relating to driver licensing are handled by the Road Safety Authority, through the National Driver Licence Service (ndls.ie, 0818 700 800/+353 21 462 4810). My Department does not have access to individual driving licence applications.
Irish driver licensing law operates within a framework of EU legislation. The format of a driving licence, including the language or languages in which it is issued, is set at EU level. Under the 2006 Driving Licence Directive (Directive 2006/126 EC), a Member State that wishes to use a national language, other than Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish or Swedish, may issue a bilingual version of its national licence. Irish licences are issued bilingually, in Irish and English.
Where a licence holder wishes to change the personal details on their licence to Irish, details on this process are available at the following link.
www.ndls.ie/licensed-driver/update-my-personal-details.html#to-apply-to-update-your-name-to-the-irish-language-version-of-your-name.
