One in four disqualified drivers did not have Irish licence

Around one in four drivers disqualified from driving last year did not have an Irish driving licence, according to figures from the Department of Transport.

Figures show that of the 8,045 motorists disqualified from driving last year, only three quarters (6,132) had an Irish licence.

Where a driver is disqualified but has a foreign licence, no licence, or officials cannot match court records to its database of drivers licences, the department creates what is called a shell record of the disqualification.

There were 1,913 shell records created to track court orders by the department last year.

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Since 2017 there have been 51,781 motorists disqualified from driving for serious driving offences or where people picked up 12 penalty points in a three-year period.

Figures show in 33,925 cases motorists had an Irish driving licence, while in 12,441 instances they did not have a licence, or were driving with a foreign licence.

The figures were obtained by Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy TD following a parliamentary question to the department.

The department said in a “small number of cases” information provided by the Courts Service is different to information held on its database of drivers licences, resulting in a shell record being created.

Last year, more than 150,000 penalty points were handed out to motorists for speeding, and 18,000 for using a mobile phone while driving. Nearly 6,000 penalty points were given for learner drivers driving without an accompanying driver.

There were 4,913 cases where motorists were given penalty points for driving “without reasonable consideration”, and more than 3,600 penalty points given for breaking traffic lights.