Ten-month expiry extension for learner permits announced
A further ten month extension to the validity of learner driving permits has today been announced by Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Hildegarde Naughton TD, as a result of level five restrictions.
Due to restrictions on accessing many of the services delivered by the Road Safety Authority (RSA), some learner permit holders could not avail of driving lessons, sit the driving test or renew their learner permit.
Commenting on the extension, Minister Naughton said:
“Providing this further ten month extension to the expiry date to Learner Permits will allow for peace of mind to many learner drivers as they continue to work towards passing their driving test in the months ahead.
“Those who will benefit from this extension don’t need to do anything, our systems will update their records automatically. A new learner permit will not be issued to drivers with the new expiry date, rather the electronic driver record will be updated to reflect the new expiry date.
“This means that a person whose learner permit expired on 10 March 2020 will have the life of this permit extended to 10 September 2021, while a person whose permit expires on 15 August 2020 will have a new expiry date of 15 October 2021.
"If you have already renewed your permit, and it had an expiry date between 1 March 2020 and 31 July 2021 the extension will not apply, and the expiry date of your permit will be as shown on your new permit. The RSA has also told Insurance Ireland and An Garda Síochána about the new expiry date of learner permits.”
This extensions is in addition to previous extensions granted, meaning permits which expired between 1 March and 30 June 2020 that were previously extended by 8 months will now be extended by a further 10 months, so 18 months in total.
Permits that expired between 1 July to 31 October 2020 that were previously extended by 4 months will now be extended by a further 10 months, so 14 months in total.
Permits that expired or will expire between 1 November 2020 and 31 July 2021 will be extended for 10 months.
Drivers who are affected by the extension are encouraged to check the new expiry date of their learner permit by using the expiry date calculator on www.ndls.ie, where they can enter the expiry date printed on their learner permits into the calculator and it will tell you the new expiry date.