Members of the Impact trade union will no longer assist with queries about a driving licence from members of the public at local authorities after the Road Safety Authority, the body with responsibility for the new application service, accused them of lengthy historic delays.
While the licensing regime is no longer the responsibility of county councils, the withdrawal of transitional co-operation on the part of Impact members there could have ramifications for backdated queries relating to records and possibly court cases.
Since the end of last month, members of the public must now attend in person centralised administration offices run by the RSA.
Impact has criticised the new regime, insisting a centralised approach does not necessarily deliver better services.
It has also taken issue with the revelation of recent personal data breaches on its website.
While the service has been transferred, it is understood that discussions are ongoing as to what will happen to the historical licensing records still held by local authorities.
In a letter to the RSA, Impact national secretary Peter Nolan outlined his members' frustration at recent remarks regarding their performance in processing licence applications.
“Our members are rightly incensed that a representative of your organisation inferred that [under the previous local authority system] people were experiencing delays of up to 60 days,” he wrote.
“At best this was misinformed, at worst it was deliberate misrepresentation. Local authorities have recorded substantial satisfaction ratings for their driver licence service. Most local authorities turned around driver licence applications significantly below the seven day target performance indicator for the service.”
Mr Nolan said that his organisation had lobbied extensively against the new system and said of the withdrawal of co-operation: “We are challenging the assumption that centralised services improve services throughout the country.”
He said that recent data breaches on the RSA administered website amounted to “further evidence of the folly of abandoning a high quality locally-based system”.
The RSA could not be reached for comment.
