Road Traffic (Licensing of Drivers) (Amendment) Regulations 2013

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Citation: IR SI 6/2013
• Year: 2013

Notice of the making of this Statutory Instrument was published in

“Iris Oifigiúil” of 18th January, 2013.

I, LEO VARADKAR, Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by sections 5(1), 23(2) (inserted by section 57 of the Road Traffic Act 2010 (No. 25 of 2010), 31(2) and 42 (inserted by section 10 of the Road Traffic Act 2006 (No. 23 of 2006) as amended by section 12 (2) of the Roads Act 2007 (No. 34 of 2007)) of the Road Traffic Act 1961 (No. 24 of 1961) section 2 of the Road Traffic Act 2006 (No. 14 of 2006) and the National Roads and Road Traffic (Transfer of Departmental Administration and Ministerial Functions) Order 2002 ( S.I. No. 298 of 2002 ) (as adapted by the Transport (Alteration of Name of Department and Title of Minister) Order 2011 ( S.I. No. 141 of 2011 )), for the purpose of giving further effect to Directive No. 2006/126/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 20061 , and to giving part effect to the Annex to Directive No. 2012/36/EU of 19 November 20122 , hereby make the following regulations:

1. (1) These Regulations may be cited as the Road Traffic (Licensing of Drivers) (Amendment) Regulations 2013.

(2) These Regulations (other than paragraph (b) of Regulation 3) come into operation on 19 January 2013.

2. In these Regulations “Regulations of 2011” means Road Traffic (Licensing of Drivers) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2011 ( S.I. No. 483 of 2011 ).

3. The Road Traffic (Licensing of Drivers) Regulations 2006 ( S.I. No. 537 of 2006 ) are amended—

(a) in Regulation 3(1), by inserting after the definition of “tricycle” the following:

“ ‘twinned wheels’ has the meaning assigned to it in Article 1(2)(b) of Directive 2002/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 March 20123 ,”,

(b) by substituting, with effect from 12 January 2013, for Regulation 4 the following:

“Disposition of fees

4. The Road Safety Authority may retain any fees received by it under these Regulations in discharge of its functions as the licensing authority.”,

(c) in Regulation 6 (inserted by Regulation 2(b) of the Regulations of 2011) by substituting in column (2) of the Table opposite B in column (1)—

(i) in the first paragraph for “750 kg” the following:

“750 kg, or, where the combined design gross vehicle weight of the towing vehicle and the trailer does not exceed 3,500 kg.”, and

(ii) in the second paragraph for “code 106” the following:

“code 96”,

(d) in Regulation 7(1)(a) (inserted by Regulation 2(c) of the Regulations of 2011) by substituting for paragraph (i) and (ii) the following:

“(i) the design gross weight of the trailer does not exceed 750 kg,

(ii) the design gross vehicle weight of the trailer exceeds 750 kg but where the design gross vehicle weight of the combination does not exceed 3,500 kg, or

(iii) where entitlement to a driving licence in category B was given prior to 19 January 2013, the drawing vehicle is in category B and the design gross vehicle weight of the trailer does not exceed the unladen weight of the drawing vehicle and the total design gross vehicle weight of the combination does not exceed 3,500 kg,”,

(e) in Regulation 9(1) (inserted by Regulation 2(d) of the Regulations of 2011) by—

(i) substituting “paragraphs (2) and (3)” for “paragraph (2)”, and

(ii) inserting after paragraphs (2) the following:

“(3) The age below which a person is disqualified from riding a tricycle in category A is 21 years.

(4) The age below which a person is disqualified from holding a licence in category A, and who has not held a licence in category A2 for 2 years, is 24 years.”,

(f) by substituting for Regulation 10 (as amended by Regulation 2(e) of the Regulations of 2011) the following:

“Form of driving licence and period of grant.

10. (1)(a) A driving licence shall be in scheduled form D.402,

(b) In driving licence form D.402—

“issued on” means the day the licence comes into force;

“from” means the date on which the licence holder first held a driving licence in the category concerned;

“to” means the date on which the driving licence concerned expires.

(2) A driving licence shall, subject to paragraphs (3) and (4), be granted for a period of—

(a) in the case of an applicant less than 60 years of age on the commencement day, for a licence to drive vehicles of category A, A1, A2, AM, B, BE or W, 10 years plus the unexpired period of a licence previously granted to the applicant,

(b) in the case of an applicant less than 60 years of age on the commencement day, for a licence to drive vehicles of category C, CE, C1, C1E, D, DE, D1 or D1E, 5 years plus the unexpired period of a licence previously granted to the applicant,

(c) subject to subparagraphs (d) and (e), in the case of an applicant 70 or more years of age on the commencement day, 3 years plus the unexpired period of a licence previously granted to the applicant,

(d) where the application is for a licence to drive vehicles of category A, A1, A2, AM, B, BE or W, the applicant is, on the commencement day—

(i)60 years of age or more but less than 67 years of age, a driving licence may be granted for the period beginning on the commencement day and ending on the day before the applicant attains the age of 70 years, or

(ii)67 years of age or more but less than 70 years of age, a driving licence may be granted for the period of 3 years plus the unexpired period of a licence previously granted to the applicant,

(e) where an application is for a licence to drive vehicles of category C, CE, C1, C1E, D, DE, D1 or D1E, the applicant is, on the commencement day—

(i)65 years of age or more but less than 67 years of age, a driving licence may be granted for the period beginning on the commencement day and ending on the day before the applicant attains the age of 70 years, or

(ii) more than 67 years of age, 3 years plus the unexpired period of a licence previously granted to the applicant.

(3) A driving licence may be granted for a period of 1 year or 3 years, together with the unexpired period of a licence previously granted to the applicant, where the application for the licence is required under Regulation 41 to be accompanied by a medical report and the medical report indicates that the applicant appears to require medical review.”,

(g) by substituting for Regulation 14(1) (inserted by Regulation 2(g) of the Regulations of 2011) the following:

“14.(1) Subject to paragraph (2), a person granted a driving licence for the first time prior to 19 January 2013 to drive vehicles in category A is, until a period of having held a driving licence in the category for 2 years, restricted to driving only those vehicles in that category which have a power output not exceeding 25 kW or a power or weight ratio not exceeding 0.16 kW/kg.”,

(h) in Regulation 15, by substituting for paragraph (2) the following:

“(2) Where the licensing authority is satisfied that the driving licence (in this Regulation referred to as the ‘original licence’) in respect of which such application is made has been lost, destroyed or mutilated it may on payment of the appropriate fee set out in Part 1 of the Schedule to the Road Traffic (Licensing of Drivers) (Fees) Regulations 2012 ( S.I. No. 559 of 2012 ) issue a duplicate of the licence.”,

(i) in regulation 17(6)(b)—

(I) in clause (vi), by substituting “a trailer,” for “a trailer.”, and

(II) by inserting after clause (vi) the following:

“(vii) vehicles of any category where code 109 is endorsed on the licence and the person has not taken a test for a certificate of competency with 2 months of the date of issue of the licence.”,

(j) in Regulation 19(2) (as amended by Regulation 2(h) of the Regulations of 2011) by—

(i) substituting for subparagraph (d) the following:

“(d) category A unless the person holds for not less than 2 years a driving licence in respect of category A2 or has attained the age of 24 years.”, and

(ii) deleting the Table to that Regulation,

(k) in Regulation 22, by substituting for paragraph (2) the following:

“(2) Where the licensing authority is satisfied that the learner permit (in this Regulation referred to as the ‘original licence’) in respect of which such application is made has been lost, destroyed or mutilated it may, on payment of the appropriate fee as set out in Part 1 of the Schedule to the Road Traffic (Licensing of Drivers) (Fees) Regulations 2012 ( S.I. No. 559 of 2012 ) issue a duplicate of the permit.”,

(l) in Regulation 27 (2), by inserting for subparagraph (c) the following:

“(c) the application relates to vehicles in a category set out in column (1) of the Table below and the conditions set out in column (2) of the Table opposite the mention in column (1) of that category are complied with:

TABLE

Category Conditions (1) (2) ED The applicant holds a driving licence in respect of vehicles in category D and— (a) the application is accompanied by a certificate of competency in respect of vehicles in category EC, or (b) the applicant holds a driving licence in respect of vehicles in category EC. ED1 The applicant holds a driving licence in respect of vehicles in category D1 and— (a) the application is accompanied by a certificate of competency in respect of vehicles in category EC or EC1, or (b) the applicant holds a driving licence in respect of vehicles in category EC or EC1.

,

or

(d) the application relates to vehicles in a category set out in column (1) of the Table below and the conditions set out in column (2) of the Table opposite the mention in column (1) of that category are complied with:

TABLE

Category Conditions (1) (2) A2 The applicant holds a category A1 driving licence for at least two years and (a) has taken an Initial Basic Training (IBT) course progression module 5 on a category A2 motorcycle, or (b) where the person has not taken an...