Motorists face long trips for licence photo

Motorists applying for a licence could be facing four-hour round trips to get their photograph taken for the credit card-size permits which come into use next week.

From September, applicants will no longer be allowed have their picture taken in a nearby pharmacy or by a local photographer. Instead, it must be captured by Credit Card Systems, a Dublin-based company appointed by the Road Safety Authority to operate the system nationally.

While it is understood that the company will provide more than one location in each county, it has yet to announce where those locations will be.