Road Traffic Act, 1994

PART IV

Driving Licences

Requirement to carry driving licence while driving vehicle.

25.—The following section is inserted in the Principal Act in substitution for section 40 of that Act:

“40.—(1) (a) A member of the Garda Síochána may demand, of a person driving in a public place a mechanically propelled vehicle or accompanying pursuant to regulations under this Act the holder of a provisional licence while such holder is driving in a public place a mechanically propelled vehicle, the production to him of a driving licence then having effect and licensing the said person to drive the vehicle, and if the person refuses or fails so to produce the licence there and then, he shall be guilty of an offence.

(b) Where a person of whom the production of a driving licence is demanded under this section refuses or fails to produce the licence there and then, a member of the Garda Síochána may require the person to produce within 10 days after the date of the said requirement the licence in person to a member of the Garda Síochána at a Garda Síochána station to be named by the person at the time of the requirement and, if the person refuses or fails so to produce the licence, he shall be guilty of an offence.

(c) In any proceedings a certificate, purporting to be signed by the member in charge of the Garda Síochána station at which the defendant concerned was required, pursuant to paragraph (b), to produce the driving licence, stating that the defendant did not, within 10 days after the day on which the production was required, produce a driving licence in accordance with the said paragraph (b) shall, without proof of the signature of the person purporting to sign the certificate or that he was the member in charge of the Garda Síochána station, be evidence, until the contrary is shown, of the facts stated in the certificate.

(d) Where any person is required to produce a driving licence at a Garda Síochána station and the person produces the licence within 10 days after the day on which the production was required, the member in charge of the Garda Síochána station shall issue a certificate stating that the licence was so produced and such certificate shall be evidence of the facts stated in the certificate.

(2) Where a person of whom the production of a driving licence is demanded or required under this section produces the licence in accordance with the demand or requirement, but refuses or fails to permit the member of the Garda Síochána to whom it is produced to read the licence, he shall be guilty of an offence.

(3) Where a person of whom the production of a driving licence is demanded or required under this section refuses or fails so to produce the licence or produces the licence but refuses or fails to permit the member of the Garda Síochána to whom it is produced to read the licence, the member may demand of the person his name and address and, if the person refuses or fails to give to the member his name and address or gives to the member a name or address which is false or misleading, he shall be guilty of an offence.

(4) A member of the Garda Síochána may arrest without warrant—

(a) a person who pursuant to this section produces a driving licence to the member but refuses or fails to permit the member to read it, or

(b) a person who, when his name and address is lawfully demanded of him by the member under this section, refuses or fails to give to the member his name and address or gives to the member a name or address which the member reasonably believes to be false.

(5) A person who, when the production of a driving licence is demanded or required of him under this section, does not produce the licence because he is not the holder of a driving licence shall be deemed to fail to produce his driving licence within the meaning of subsection (1) of this section.”.