DUBLIN: The Government has announced that it has extended the validity of the learner permits for drivers in Ireland. The new decision will bring relief to many people waiting for a driving licence in the country.
Minister of State at the Department of Transport Hildegarde Naughton explained that the Government had decided to extend the expiry dates of learner permits by an additional ten months in the wake of COVID-19 restrictions.
Many people were unable to obtain their driving licences on time because the Road Safety Authority (RSA) offices were closed and no driving tests had been conducted since the pandemic. Many of these people’s learner permit are about to expire. In this situation, the government considered a new 10-month extension.
“Those who will benefit from this extension don’t need to do anything, our systems will update their records automatically. A new learner permit will not be issued to drivers with the new expiry date, rather the electronic driver record will be updated to reflect the new expiry date,” Minister Hildegarde Naughton said.
Previously, the term of learner permits was extended, and it has now been extended by an additional 10 months. The extension means that a driver whose learner permit expired between March 1st, 2020 and July 31st, 2021 will have it extended by 10 months. This is in addition to the extensions previously received.
“This means that a person whose learner permit expired on March 10th 2020 will have the life of this permit extended to September 10th 2021, while a person whose permit expires on August 15th 2020 will have a new expiry date of October 15th 2021,” the Minister said.
“If you have already renewed your permit, and it had an expiry date between March 1st 2020 and July 31st 2021 the extension will not apply, and the expiry date of your permit will be as shown on your new permit,” she added.
Expiry date calculator
Holders of expired permits can now find out their new expiration date by using the expiry date calculator on www.ndls.ie.
The Department of Transport expects that any driver will be able to renew a learner permit within three months of its new expiry date.
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