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PHOTO PROFESSIONALS ARE seeking a meeting with Minister Leo Varadkar and say that a new system for the forthcoming credit card-style driving licence could lead to job losses.
They say that the jobs could be lost because the photograph will be captured by the company that will complete the rest of the card process.
The card will be introduced in January 2013 and the Road Safety Authority sought a service provider through the EU tender process. SGS have been awarded the tender, which includes the capture of each individual’s photograph for their driving licence on-site from September 2013 on.
Tadhg Foley of Photo ID Professionals and Country Manager of Photo Me Irelandtold TheJournal.ie that this could impact on an estimated 4,000 employed in the provision of such services through photography shops (mini labs), pharmacies, camera shops, photographers and other outlets across the country. He said it could result in the loss of a minimum of 500 jobs by January 2014.
Jobs
Foley said those in the industry are not against the introduction of these new styles of driving licences “but cannot understand why a sole agent provider” is to look after the photos.
Photo ID Professionals have met with government and opposition TD’s and Senators and the group is now seeking an urgent meeting with the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Mr Leo Varadkar TD to seek a resolution of this issue.
Foley said that there are around 600,000 licences issued each year in Ireland and that for photographic shops, taking the photos is a large part of their business.
RSA
The RSA said that it tendered for a front office facility to administer the licence and be the public face of the NDLS. The RSA requested photo capture at the front office in the tender and gave the option of scanning a photograph provided by the customer or the capture of a digital photograph by the contractor at the front office. All tenderers proposed the latter.
It added that this system will:
deliver an enhanced level of security and anti fraud measures, by capturing the photograph of the customer at the front office instead of the customer providing a photograph with the current application through the post.
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Fair enough, but their prices to take said photographs were an utter rip off, so karma and all that.
Sure Erica !
They were beaten on a Tender ! They should grow up.
Ah now, this is hardly a massive monopolist new state invention, sure you still have the passports lads, not to mention, Garda Id, student cards and of course weddings. Good luck!
thats where it all starts.next it will be passports.then you will still be saying ah sure you still have weddings, student id etc. until eventually they too will be swallowed up.
Graham. I’m delighted I won’t have to pay up an extra €6 or €8 for a little photo. I’ve had enough of rip off Ireland. So many regulations and fees and rules everywhere.
jack i agree its a rip off but when this company has a monopoly you will have no choice on what you have to pay just to get a licence.
Ridiculous argument saying it will cost jobs, we can’t constantly stem progression just because it costs jobs! I have heard there is a new credit card style card in the pipe works that will hold all kinds of information; pps, blood type, donor card, driving disqualifications. Welfare receipts etc… It is the first stage of inter agency communication.
Inter agency communication? SGS are a private company and I for one don’t want personal information shared between government and the private sector.
There’s a new smart card national identity card that will hold information. It won’t be for sgs. The main idea of it is to crack down on welfare fraud, government agencies will be able to see what allowances and welfare people are getting from hse, councils etc… It can only be a good thing
How will they lose wedding business to this? Passport maybe, no harm as I had a passport application sent back twice due to these photographers not following the regulations, but sgs can hardly take wedding business
Your right on that card chilly a great idea, wonder how much further it will get than an idea though , its taken years to bring in the driving licence.
and the welfare fraud in some places is a lot simpler than that, their systems are so badly linked people could claim the dole in edenderry , rathangan and portarlington all on the same day as they were different counties and records were kept separately…. unreal.
Is it April fools day? For feck sake it’s the digital age – adapt or die lads
Aoife. The Maths don’t add up. 600,000
licences every year appears rather a large number even allowing for lost licences and provisional ones. But even at that number Mr Foley says 4000 people rely on it for their business. That’s 150 customers per year per service provider. I thinks he is exaggerating quite a bit.
I think you’re right – gross exaggeration – however am against any monopoly in principle and wondering if we can no longer apply by post what hours have the SGS agreed to open in their tender proposal
600,000 licences issued every year in Ireland? Really? And they last 10 years?
So, approx 6,000,000 have Irish drivers licences..
That’d be about right. Yeah.
600,000 includes renewals so if u have people renewing after 10,20,40 and 40 years and new drivers and lost or stolen licences they all add up
Not to mention people living abroad renewing there’s too.
There are so many other reasons people have I.D photos taken. This will not take a huge chunk of business away. From working in photo developing myself, it is the fault of greedy shop owners who price these photos so high-that is why they would be losing out. Seriously €6 and upwards for one photograph containing 4 or 6 small images!! Takes less than 1 minute to put through and print!! I often reccomend that people take their own photo at home, They can brighten it up themselves at the kiosk and print it as a regular photo for 40c.
Remember that shop owner has to pay rent, rates, your wages, electricity, heating, stock, insurance,equipment. You should factor these costs in before you sabotage the business which employs you.
And even after all that a profit margin that runs to 1000′s of percent is not acceptable! If I can do it at a kiosk for a few cent there is no excuse for ?6/photo
600,000 licences each year? Am I the only person who thinks that figures is a bit high, even including renewals.
Some people think 600,000 is credible.
Pretty impressive for a total population of less than 5 million.
And the courts full of people who don’t have licences!!
It’s almost impossible to know where to start …
Passport photos, are verified by someone who knows the person involved or is a Guard. The same process could be used. Even then if the applicant has to come into an office they will be standing in front of the employee working for the firm. The employee can then use a process called “looking” to see if it’s the same person as in the photo.
You know every once in a while someone goes “Oh, yeah, we’re like a laughing stock.”? Well this sort of thing doesn’t help.
Process called looking!! Love it :D
What decade is this?
Everyone I know has access to a digital camera. If you could upload your own jpegs, all the cropping and resizing and background lightening and ensuring the hairline is between lines D and E could be done automatically, in software. And if you can’t get a reasonable biometric scan off it, it can be rejected instantly. You then get a link for a Garda to certify. No printing, no scanning, no messing about with stupid little photos.
Does Ireland do this? No it doesn’t. Instead it creates a tender where the only two options are scanning and having someone else take short range photos to make your nose look bigger.
The real story is why Leo has to put this process to tender in the first place when the jobs could be used to transfer public servants into jobs that are useful, using the motor tax offices to process the photos……Instead he hands what is sure to be an over priced job to a company registered in geneva, switzerland……The board of executives look like they could use the money though….to think that photography stores would collapse due to the loss of passport id’s is ridiculous and frankly a non story.
who the hell goes to a professional photographer to get pics for there licence in the first place
They must have a business registered in the EU to be eligible to tender for Government contracts.
” Leo” put this process to tender because he is obliged to under EU Law.
In the same way that Irish companies are tendering for business in other EU companies
Why tender in the first place jim when it should have been done by an office that already exists….motor tax should be doin this
I took and printed my own photos for my passport and driving license. It only cost me a few cent to do so. That way I could avoid expensive photo booths and chemists, and take a better picture, …look less like a muppit.
How much will the new system cost me? Bet they’re going to charge me €10 to sit in front of their camera, well it’s going to be a monopoly.
So now i have to go to a specific office at a designated time to get a photo and renew my licence instead of doing it online or by post. So much for moving forward.
how do you renew your licence on line?
Let’s not change anything ever, for fear that someone will have to retrain.
Anyway, generally we’re talking one photo every ten years for each driver, how many people are depending on that income?
Passports are big users of these so don’t see a big issue.. let them downsize in preparation for fully electronic passports.
Or, when we change things, change them in a way that actually makes sense. Just a thought.
The Irish say yes to everything the Government do. Yes to Austerity, Yes to state control over children and families. Yes Sir, Yes Sir, 3 bags full Sir. Pathetic country.
Yawn! Try and comment on the actual topic if you’re going to bother.
Is this the same SGS that operate the NCT centres? The other point is will this have an effect on local authority jobs if they are no longer issuing the licenses?
imagine the Qs for this service! Anything to do with motoring is done the same, walk in, press for ticket, wait 2 hours for one of the 6 or 7 booths to come available.. and to top it, i can bet that the photo service will be more expensive than a chemist or photo shop! its just another money making scam by government.
I’ve been waiting 6 weeks for a new photo pps card. Shocking.
i go to the booth outside the door of motor vehicles,, thought everyone did,, passports now thats a different story, back grounds, ears showing,, size,, sorry photographers but ye are a little costly,,, watch our pennies now
Look, when the motor car ‘came in’ a lot of horse dealers went to the wall. What’s their point, exactly?
There’s argument for and against here. The thing that sticks out for me is that it is going to be a monopoly situation with the issue of drivers licences. What’ll they cost I wonder ? With no competition it could be the case that whatever you paid for your photo becomes a pittance compared to the new overall cost of getting a licence. Everyone needs to make a living and having to pay €5 or €10 once every 10 years is very good value in my opinion. At least you’d be sure the photo was in the correct format and dimensions etc. and you wouldn’t have had it thrown back at you. Honestly, the way people jump on the “rip of Ireland” bandwagon is astounding sometimes. At the first sign of a potential opportunity the phrase “rip off Ireland” is thrown out by someone. Give it a rest will ya ? Fact is that Ireland is an expensive country, and by the very definition of “rip off Ireland” the people often accused of being rip off merchants get ripped of too, don’t they ?
This is crazy. Are we that stuck for proper news?
Digital cameras have been out for about 10 years and white walls are a plenty. If anyone is still paying someone to get a mug shot done then they truly are a mug.
I’ve been taking my own photos for years and when I read the headline on this I thought they were moving to an online application and allowing people to upload their photos. But no, that would be moving forward. Instead I’m going to have to go in person to an office at least 20 miles away and queue so some Muppet can take a mugshot that makes me look like a criminal. Who thinks up these things?
About time hopefully this will stop fake licences, and will also be an identity for the the upholders of the law
Technology. Get over it.
exactly.. the existing licences are too easy to fake also
The cost of a driver’s licence from 1 January 2013 is €55 for a ten year licence. Previously it was €25. Surely if its going towards an automated system, it should be more cost effective, why a €30 increase!
It is about time we have good driving licence the other ones get damaged in your wallet the new one will not, and I presume their will be more information about the licence holders on the new licence which is good, this will roughly be the same the same size as a a bank card, as for the people that were taking the photos for the old ones it was a rip off, time to move on
Every year when the price of a licence goes up just like our motorways I’m sure everyone will be wandering how did this happen?
All the problems in the country and a fiver every 10 years is a problem.
What else could our government put up for tender, maybe use all our houses for holiday homes to increase tourism
have your say