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THE MINISTER FOR Transport has announced a new agreement which allows the mutual exchange of driving licences between Ireland and the Canadian province of Ontario.
Under the agreement, Irish citizens living and working in Ontario will be able to use their Irish licence to drive, and people from Ontario can use their Canadian licences while living in Ireland.
Minister Leo Varadkar said he was “very pleased” the agreement had been reached, adding that it has been “sought for some time by Irish people living in the province”.
Ontario has the largest number of Irish residents of any Canadian province and this agreement will allow them to exchange their Irish driving licences for Ontario licences, rather than having to register as learner drivers.
Varadkar thanked the Road Safety Authority, the Irish Embassy in Canada and the authorities in Ontario for their work on the agreement. He said he hopes that, having reached this agreement, “it should be possible to reach speedy agreements with other Canadian provinces”.
Regulations governing the agreement will be introduced within the next fortnight, according to the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport.
Yea Leo that’s great and all but it would be better if people didn’t have to emigrate in the first place.
All I know about Ontario is Neil Young came from there & I’m off to see him in Cork, they better have a licence
You will be missed Leo.
All the best and safe driving…
Leo driving change
Leo VaradCar ……
Saskatchewan has been doing this with a while, you can drive on your Irish licence for three months but then you have to change, straight swap from category B licence to class 5.
What about Alberta. Is it going to happen there aswell? There are a lot of Irish working in the oil patch!
There is no such word as ‘aswell’.
Whenever I see a grammar nazi I say quietly to myself “there, they’re, their”.
Thanks for the info, Pickart. You’re a swell fellow.
Nice one J. Dunn.
Aswell.. Fu_king love that word. Use it most days.
I only found out it wasn’t a word when auto correct came about…
What about USA driving licence, we have more irish in America, get working on that
Problem is most of them are illegal Irish. I would guess the vast majority of people immigrating are going to Canada. Near impossible to get a visa for the US currently.
At present Illegals is some US cities can legally obtain a driving license.
Ontario better be on the luck out for the dodgy ones
The only reason their targeting Canada is they have a reciprocal tax agreement with Ireland
Now if only he could fix the G B issue.
The GB issue will be fixed probably by playing 5 shows over 7 days rather than 5 days.
I am fed up to the teeth with GB there’s another heading on the Journal if you want to post on that topic. so go away . Thank you.
This is great news for loads of people coming back to Ireland to live
It will be great when all USA States come on board !
Yeah When can I exchange my US licence for an Irish one … I’ve been driving for 15 years.
I had to do my driving license all over again. Watch out then as they try to hit you for something like $7,000 per year to insure a car. We eventually got insurance for $1,200 per year but we very nearly got fleeced.
This is best news but do they on Ontario exchange all categories,like truck and car + motorbike ?
have your say