Members of Motorcaravanning Ireland have been engaged in extensive negotiation with The Driver Testing and Licencing Directorate within The Road Safety Authority in connection with the roll out of the new restricted C1 driving licence as mentioned in
Commission Directive 2012/36/EU http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2012:321:0054:0058:EN:PDF and also in the following NCC document http://www.thencc.org.uk/news_press/news_detail.aspx?newsid=110
However, to date the licence has not been made available to Irish residents and Motorcaravanning Ireland are currently engaged in an effert to excalating the issue to
The Department of The Minister for Transport Tourism and Sport.
Motorcaravanning Ireland shares the view of The EU Commission that such a licence would prove very benificial to those in the motorcaravanning community who currently hold only a B category
licence and who seek to own a vehicle with a plated weight in excess of 3,500kg GVW in order that they will have sufficient payload and thus avoid operating the vehicle in an overloaded condition.
23/04/2014
It has been confirmed by the RSA that
systems and procedures are in place which facilitate the issue of Category C1(97) licence to certain drivers. Such drivers are those who hold that category from another EU ecountry and if they become clasified as 'normally resident' in Ireland exvhange their
foreign licence for an Irish licence.
However, it remains for The Minister fully adopt Directive 2012/36 and for The RSA to provide an appropriate driving test framework to enable
those already with an Irish licence to avail of the same category.