Emer Currie
Question:1707. Deputy Emer Currie asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration the number of disqualified driver offences recorded caught driving while under a driving ban in 2024. [1061/26]
View answerTuesday, 13 January 2026
Questions (1707, 1708, 1709)
Emer Currie
Question:1708. Deputy Emer Currie asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration the number of detections, arrests and prosecutions broken down for the offence of driving while disqualified in the past five years. [1063/26]
View answerEmer Currie
Question:1709. Deputy Emer Currie asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration the number of people arrested and prosecuted for the offence of driving while disqualified in the past five years. [1064/26]
View answerWritten answers
I propose to take Questions Nos. 1707, 1708 and 1709 together.
Road safety is a shared responsibility. The whole of Government response is led by the Department of Transport and is taken very seriously across Government.
An Garda Síochána plays a vital role in enforcing road traffic law and in making our roads safer for all road users, including vulnerable road users.
Road traffic laws are enforced by Gardaí assigned to Roads Policing and as part of the day-to-day duties of uniformed Gardaí nationwide. This includes a programme of high-visibility road safety and enforcement operations carried out in partnership with other state agencies.
Section 38 of the Road Traffic Act 1961, as amended by Section 12 of the Road Traffic Act 2006 creates the offence of ‘Driving without a Driving Licence’ which is liable upon summary conviction to a fine not exceeding €1,000, and in any other case, to a fine not exceeding €2,000.
There is no separate offence of ‘Driving While Disqualified’. Section 38(5) provides a more severe penalty for driving without a licence during the period of disqualification, namely a fine not exceeding €5,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or both. However, the specific offence remains one of driving without a licence.
Technological & data sharing advances now enable Gardaí to establish, through the deployment of handheld devices, whether a particular driver has been disqualified.
The table below provides a breakdown by year of the number of unique offenders for which a charge or summons was created for the offence of ‘Driving Without a Driving Licence’.
|
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
2025 |
|
14,118 |
12,294 |
11,467 |
12,227 |
11,309 |
Prosecutions are a matter for the Director of Public Prosecutions, who is fully independent in her functions. As Minister, I have no role in the operations, functions, governance or oversight of the Office of the DPP and as a result I am unable to provide any information or statistics relating to the Director's work.
The management of the courts, operational matters and logistical functions, are solely matters for the Judiciary, who are completely independent in the exercise of their functions under the Courts Service Act 1998 and given the separation of powers in the Constitution. As Minister I have no role in the outcome of any court proceedings and do not keep statistics on court decisions.
The Courts Service has a dedicated email address for the provision of information to members of the Oireachtas. That email address is oireachtasenquiries@courts.ie.
Question No. 1708 answered with Question No. 1707.
Question No. 1709 answered with Question No. 1707.