A local councillor has raised his concerns over the length of time it is taking to exchange a driving licence for people returning home after living abroad.
Cllr Philip Brady says over the last 6 months or so we have seen a lot of people returning back home after stints living abroad.
There have been quite a few on about problems in getting their driving licence exchanged from the country they are returning from, to a new Irish licence.
He said he was contacted recently by someone in the process of exchanging an Australian driver's licence for an Irish licence through the NDS (National Driver Licence Service).
They were advised that this process may take up to 12 weeks.
Cllr Brady said this is a straightforward licence exchange, this timeframe is ridiculous and is causing significant difficulty for a lot of returning immigrants.
He said he understands there can be issues communicating with an overseas road authority, but converting a licence in the opposite direction takes a couple of days at max.
Cllr Brady says he has contacted the NDLS on several occasions to explain the situations of some of the people that contacted him and he said he had not been offered any assistance or alternative solutions.
The Fianna Fáil councillor called on Cavan County Council to write to the Minister for Transport Darragh O'Brien, and to the NDLS asking why there are such issues.
He says these delays are ones that should be easy to rectify.
