Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 1 April 2025
286. Deputy Emer Currie asked the Minister for Transport the number of court disqualifications each year from 2020 to 2024; the number of disqualifications that could not be matched to the appropriate record; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15178/25]
View answerDriving disqualification court order information is sent electronically from the Courts Service to my Department. This information is then endorsed on driver records on the Department's National Vehicle and Driver File (NVDF).
If a court order cannot be matched automatically against an Irish driver record, the National Driving Licence Service (NDLS), operated by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) undertake a manual search to attempt to match the record. In the event that a match cannot be found, a ‘shell’ record is created on the NVDF to track the court order.
It is important to note that some disqualifications are imposed on drivers who do not hold (or may never have held) an Irish licence or drivers who hold foreign licences. Therefore, due to cases like these, it will never be the case that all disqualifications orders will have an NVDF record to be matched to.
It is also the case that some disqualifications are imposed on Irish licence holders, but it is not possible to match these to the appropriate driver record. As the Garda Inspectorate Report explains, the primary cause for this is the failure of the individual to produce their driving licence in court. This matter is the responsibility of An Garda Siochana, the Department of Justice and the Courts Service, but my Department will be supportive of any measures address the issue as it will improve our subsequent ability to match court orders to driver records.
The number of distinct driver records, including shell records, that had driving disqualifications imposed based on court orders received from the Courts Service every year from 2020 to 2024 is as follows. As noted above, the shell records include foreign licenced drivers, unlicenced drivers and Irish-licenced drivers where a match has not been made. Please note that some driver records, including shell records, have had multiple disqualifications; the figures represent the number of drivers disqualified.
|
|
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
|
Irish |
5,421 |
6,373 |
5,972 |
6,873 |
5,908 |
|
"Shell" record |
1,712 |
2,130 |
1,862 |
2,121 |
1,907 |
|
Total |
7,133 |
8,503 |
7,834 |
8,994 |
7,815 |
