This could affect road users…
Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Shane Ross will introduce a new provision on Tuesday allowing for mutual disqualifications between the state and UK.
According to the Irish Times, the move means that people banned from driving for a range of offences in Ireland, will similar be banned from driving in the UK.
“The mutual recognition of driving disqualifications is an important road safety measure because it aims to target dangerous drivers on our roads,” Ross told the Irish Times.
“Maintaining the common travel area and our economic links with the UK are important priorities for Ireland, and this agreement will make a contribution towards that objective, as well as making an important contribution to road safety.”
Since January 28, 2010 Ireland and the UK have operated the European Convention on Driving Disqualifications. This meant that a resident of Ireland disqualified in the UK could also be disqualified in Ireland and vice versa.
But this changed from December 2014, when the operation of the Convention, as part of the provisions of the Lisbon Treaty, came under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The UK exercised its right to opt out of the ECJ jurisdiction in relation to the application of the Convention.
Therefore the UK were no longer party Convention and the arrangements under that convention that allow for mutual recognition of driving disqualifications between Ireland and the UK.
The Irish and UK authorities have been working since to to ensure that mutual disqualification provisions were returned as soon as possible.
The structure for the new arrangements is in then 2015 Agreement on the Mutual Recognition of Driving Disqualifications between Ireland and the United Kingdom.
It will mean that, under the agreement, the driving disqualification is transferred by the state who will apply the ban in the driver’s own country as well.
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