EU License Vs. Irish Licence - Penalty Points?

theguzman

Lets take an example of two drivers the first person has a a full Irish licence and he passes a SpeedVan in his Irish Registered car, bam, he is caught fined €80 and 3 points on his licence for the next 3 years.

Two minutes later an EU Citizen with a licence from another member state passes the same SpeedVan in an Irish registered car, bam he is caught and like his Irish counterpart will receive the fixed penalty notice. However what is the situation for Penalty points as this guy could hold a license from France or Greece (any EU really). What happens then? He is financially penalised with the €80 fine but does he not receive penalty points?

Could in theory a Spanish millionaire on his Spanish licence drive around breaking the limit and just keep paying the fines but due to the lack of points and his Foreign EU licence exempt him from getting points or losing his licence.

What happens with the Insurance situation? Could an EU citizen have been caught several times speeding but because he never receives points be at an insurance advantage compared to an Irish driver who will lose his licence if he accrues 12 points within a 3 year timeframe

joujoujou

If someone is driving in Ireland on a foreign licence, a record is created for the purpose of recording penalty points.

So, in theory, there's no difference what country driving licence is issued in.

Del2005

joujoujou wrote: »

So, in theory, there's no difference what country driving licence is issued in.

It's a ghost licence and has no affect till the concert it to an Irish licence, but from a few posts here it appears that the RSA don't carry over points from a ghost licence if you change to an Irish one.

You don't have points on your licence till you get the letter from the RSA and they can't apply points to foreign licences.

FishOnABike

joujoujou wrote: »

So, in theory, there's no difference what country driving licence is issued in.

AFAIK the points are only applied if they change their licence for an Irish one. If they are resident in Ireland they should do this when their foreign licence expires.

If the foreign licence has no expiry date then in theory they could drive around forever and never have any points on their licence. They would have a loading on their insurance for a foreign licence but it would probably be better than having a large number of penalty points or having received a driving disqualification.

CiniO

Del2005 wrote: »

It's a ghost licence and has no affect till the concert it to an Irish licence, but from a few posts here it appears that the RSA don't carry over points from a ghost licence if you change to an Irish one.

You don't have points on your licence till you get the letter from the RSA and they can't apply points to foreign licences.

That used to be the case up to about 3 or 4 years ago.

Since then it changed - no more ghost licences - and everyone is issued penalty points for offences no matter if they hold Irish or foreign licence and do get disqualified after collecting 12 points.

joujoujou

CiniO wrote: »

[...] everyone is issued penalty points for offences no matter if they hold Irish or foreign licence and do get disqualified after collecting 12 points.

^^ This! ^^

And it really works that way - one woman I work with has EU licence, collected enough points and got a letter she is no longer allowed to drive here.