Doyle welcomes agreement with Ontario on driving licences

Fine Gael TD for Wicklow/East Carlow, Andrew Doyle, has welcomed an agreement signed today (Wednesday) by the Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar TD, which will allow for the mutual recognition of driving licences between Ireland and Ontario. For the last year, Deputy Doyle has been calling for agreements to be reached between the Irish and Canadian authorities to allow for the recognition of Irish driving licences.

“Since last year I have been urging the Minister to progress this issue so Irish people living and working in Canada can legitimately use their Irish driving licences. Irish driving licences are recognised throughout the 28 EU Member States, and driving licence recognition agreements are already in place with a number of other countries. However, up to this point, Ireland and Canada have had no such agreement, so I am delighted positive progress is now being made.

“Minister Varadkar had asked the Road Safety Authority (RSA) to open discussions on the matter with Canadian authorities. He asked them to prioritise Ontaria, which has the largest number of Irish residents of any of the Canadian residents. The hard work of the RSA and the Irish Embassy in Ottawa has delivered this agreement, which will make a big difference to Irish people living in Ontario.

“Canada, unlike Ireland, has a decentralised driving licence system, meaning each State and territory has its own licensing system. But Minister Varadkar has said that now that this agreement has been reached with the authorities in Ontario, it should be possible to reach speedy agreements with the other Canadian provinces.

“Some provinces such as Alberta have relaxed restrictions on Irish licence holders, allowing Irish licence holders exemptions for their province’s graduated driving licence system.   Now that mutual recognition has been reached with Ontario, I hope progress can be achieved in other areas like Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut.

“The agreement with Ontario is expected to come into effect within the next fortnight. I will continue to work closely with Minister Varadkar to ensure that we can reach agreements with the other Canadian provinces to make it easier for Irish citizens living there to have their driving licences recognised.”

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