Gardaí received access via its roads policing mobility app to a range of vital information including motorists’ penalty points and court disqualifications only last December, seven years after the technology was first launched.
However, they are still awaiting access to further information including driver licence photographs and signatures.
Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan said this week that Garda authorities had informed him that officers “do not have full access to the national vehicle and driver file (NVDF) from the Department of Transport, and Garda members do not have full access to the NDVF through the mobility app”.
The mobility app was first introduced in 2019. The NVDF is a database holding all driver licence and permit details including penalty points and disqualifications.
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The Minister told Fine Gael TD Emer Currie in a parliamentary reply that a pilot roads policing project in Kildare and Carlow late last year “enhanced the presentation and operational use of selected NVDF data rather than providing unrestricted access to the complete NVDF”.
An earlier version of the mobility app included basic details including driver identifier numbers and personal details including name, address and date of birth.
The latest version, used in the Kildare-Carlow project, was deployed nationally last year and included information related to penalty points, court disqualifications, phone numbers, licence details and learner permits and history.
There has been confusion for some time over the level of information available to gardaí at roadside checkpoints.
In January, writing to Currie on behalf of the Minister for Justice, his private secretary said the Carlow-Kildare project tested the “concept” of giving Garda members full access to the NDVF.
“This testing is now complete and, as of 9 December 2025, all Garda members have full access to the NDVF on their mobility device which includes full and learner licence details, details of disqualifications and penalty points.”
However, it has emerged that gardaí still do not have access to driver licence photographs at roadside checkpoints, which Currie said Garda authorities had first sought in 2019.
In a parliamentary reply in March, Minister of State for Transport Seán Canney told the Dublin West TD his department was considering a Garda request from September 2025 about the inclusion of licence photographs and signatures.
He was seeking legal advice on NVDF data sharing. “It is hoped this process will be concluded by the summer, which would coincide with the planned enactment of the National Vehicle and Driver Bill.”
The Bill’s measures include provisions to improve the legislative basis underpinning the NVDF. Currie said there were “gaps in critical information available to gardaí through their roadside mobility devices” and “gardaí must have the most up-to-date tools and data needed to identify and tackle road safety offenders effectively”.
The lack of photographs is understood to be a big issue as some motorists have claimed to be a relative with the same name and no penalty points or disqualifications.
Susan Gray of road safety campaign group Parc said “it beggars belief” that it took until December 9th to give gardaí access to vital information.
“We’re very worried about what is missing. We know the driving licence photograph is missing and that’s crucial for the gardaí to be able to enforce laws on Irish roads,” she said.
In May 2024, when attending the Oireachtas transport committee, then Garda commissioner Drew Harris said “giving us full access to the national driver vehicle file will enable us to have more live information about those high-risk drivers on Irish roads”.
The Department of Transport said the photograph element of the licence was a “particularly sensitive” piece of personal data.
“An Garda Siochana has requested this to be added to the data transfer. The legal basis for this is being considered, as well as the data protection implications examined. That process is ongoing.”
It said gardai have had “nearly full access” to the NVDF for many years. In 2025, it moved to consolidate separate data transfers into one single dataflow which is now refreshed nightly.
“The Garda mobility app rollout began in 2020. An Garda Siochana has been using NVDF data in the app since then and has had access to certain data before then,” it said. “How and when An Garda Siochana make this available to their members is a matter for them to explain.”
