What's the news?
Following a great deal of criticism, the Road Safety Authority has confirmed that from the end of this month, you will no longer need to present a Public Services Card when applying for a driver's licence.
August 31st has been set as the cutoff date for needing to present a Public Services Card as proof of identity when applying for you driver theory test.
The use of the Public Service Card has been a source of both frustration and anger for some time, as many have questioned its strict legality, and have criticised the Byzantine system needed to get your Public Services Card properly verified. At the moment, you have to present yourself in person at a social welfare centre to do so.
Documents seen by TheJournal.ie suggest that while the requirement for a Public Services Card to be presented will be dropped, and that no additional charge to the existing €45 cost of booking a theory test is expected, drivers looking to renew an existing licence online will still have to have a verified MyGovID proof of identity - effectively an online version of the Public Services Card.
However, the RSA is working on an alternative to the MyGovID requirement as apparently only three per cent of existing driver's licence holders have a verified identity or a Public Services Card.
The final removal of the Public Services Card requirement was originally supposed to have taken eight weeks to organise. By the end of August, it will have taken six months.