Why do thousands of disqualified drivers refuse to surrender their learner permit even when ordered to do so by a judge?

According to data released to Catherine Murphy TD after a Parliamentary Question last week, 1,892 people in 2023 were asked to hand over learner permits after disqualification.

Only 70 people did so - less than 5% of the total.

In four counties, not a single person surrendered their learner permit.

In theory, when someone is banned from driving, they should no longer have a driving licence in their possession.

In practice, the system is not designed to cope with people who refuse to do so.

“The easiest thing in the world is to say, ‘You know what judge, I’m after leaving it at home, I don’t have it with me,’” transport expert Conor Faughnan told The Pat Kenny Show. 

“The clerk of the court then notes the date, you are then obliged to surrender your licence within two weeks.

“If you don’t, with exceptions, virtually nothing happens.”

Mr Faughnan said officials are meant to follow up with a person who fails to surrender their licence – but few actually do so.

“The everyday reality for the driver who just doesn’t do it, there’s a system to follow it up - it doesn’t happen,” Mr Faughnan said. “It simply doesn’t happen.”

'Just so tedious to do'

Equally, it is an offence not to have your licence with you when driving - but once again, in reality, nothing is likely to happen to you if you don’t.

“You’re obliged to furnish it within two weeks and you can nominate your Garda station,” Mr Faughnan said.

“Let’s say you don’t turn up within two weeks, in theory the Guard can pursue that but in reality, the individual Guard will have to get onto the vehicle licensing people in Shannon [and] demonstrate he had a good reason to ask you to furnish your licence.

“I spoke to a Guard who in 25 years had done it once or twice because it’s just so tedious to do.”

One potential solution, Mr Faughnan, believes, would be to compel people to arrive in court with their driving licence.

“It should be an offence in its own right to turn up in front of the judge without the licence or good reason,” he said.

Any driver who accumulates more than 12 penalty points within a three-year-period is disqualified from driving for six months and must surrender their licence to the National Driver Licence Service.

Main image: Garda checkpoint in Cork. Credit: David Creedon / Alamy Live News