Failing to record disqualifications erodes confidence in road safety enforcement, TD warns

The report also revealed no records of holding a driving licence could be found for 5% of motorists who incurred penalty points in 2024 — a total of 8,220 individuals. Picture: iStock

Concerns have been raised over how a quarter of driver disqualifications and almost half of all penalty points imposed on motorists by courts are going unrecorded on a national database of driving licences.

Fine Gael Dublin West TD Emer Currie said a failure to record the driving licence number of offending motorists who appear in court is “unacceptable”, adding that it erodes public confidence in road safety enforcement.

Her comments follow the publication of figures by the Department of Transport, showing that no valid driving licence could be found for 18% of motorists banned from driving in 2024 — either by the courts or through amassing a certain number of penalty points with a related driving licence.

The figure equates to over 1,900 motorists, including 538 in Dublin, 179 in Cork, 143 in Galway, 109 in Limerick, as well as 113 foreign motorists or unknown individuals.

The report also revealed no records of holding a driving licence could be found for 5% of motorists who incurred penalty points in 2024 — a total of 8,220 individuals.

Ms Currie said the situation had led to gaps in information on the database relied on by gardaí and motor insurers to verify a driver’s status.

The report on the recording of penalty points and disqualifications on the National Vehicle and Driver File (NVDF) found that a driver’s licence is only recorded on 35% of notifications sent by the courts to the Department of Transport and on only 15% of notifications relating to disqualifications.

Subsequently, only 46% of penalty points and 76% of disqualifications arising from court prosecutions could be matched with a driver’s licence on the NVDF.

Roadside checks

In contrast, almost 100% of penalty points and disqualifications imposed after motorists paid a fine after being detected of a traffic offence by either gardaí or a speed camera were matched with the relevant driving licence.

Ms Currie, a member of the Oireachtas transport committee, claimed the issue represents a failure which demands immediate action as the NVDF is the main database used by gardaí conducting roadside checks to verify details about drivers and vehicles.

However, the failure to match a disqualification notice with a registered licence holder makes it more difficult for gardaí to detect and prosecute drivers who continue to drive while disqualified.

The report shows that 10,907 notifications of motorists being disqualified in 2024 were reported to the Department of Transport. The department oversees the NVDF database containing information on all registered vehicles in the Republic and their owners as well as details of licence holders.

However, only 8,988 notifications were linked to licence holders on the NVDF database. Details of about 1,919 banned drivers went “unmatched”.

Ms Currie said the minister for transport, Darragh O’Brien, had committed to carrying out a full review of the matching process after she had sought clarity on the accuracy of the NVDF.

She claimed the figures were particularly alarming given the high number, 190, of people who died on the roads last year.