Sir, – I applied for a renewal of my driving licence on November 26th and after a four-hour wait at the NDLS centre in City West managed to complete all the formalities. By January 29th I had still not received the licence – which meant I had to cancel or delay several trips abroad which required hiring or driving a car. I also attempted to contact the NDLS service by phone and email on a number of occasions without success until this morning (January 29th). It has now assured me my licence was put in the post yesterday (January 28th). Hopefully this will soon enable me to re-book my flights.
The situation is analogous to the situation with Irish Water where a service previously provided by local authorities is now being centralised into one specialised agency. While one might expect some teething problems in this process the failure to deliver such a basic and legally required service has serious consequences for citizens and businesses who need to travel abroad. I wonder will the Government learn from this episode and ensure that similar problems aren’t experienced with Irish Water? – Yours, etc,
FRANK SCHNITTGER,
Red Lane,
Blessington, Co Wicklow.