As part of business planning, there will be adjustments to fees for a number of Road Safety Authority (RSA) services, effective from January 1, 2025.
There will be planned €18 million expenditure on public interest activities and government priorities.
As part of the changes, the price of a drivers licence will increase from €55 to €65. Learner permits will increase in price from €35 to €45.
A full test under the National Car Test (NCT) will increase from €55 to €60. Retest under the NCT will increase from €28 to €40.
The NCT is a preventative road safety measure that ensures vehicles over four years old are subject to a basic safety check at regular intervals.
During the test, vehicles are examined for any faults listed in the NCT manual 2023, and when it passes, drivers are presented with an NCT certificate and disc.
Commercial Vehicle Roadworthiness Test (CVRT) will increase by 15% in the pre-VAT cost as part of the cost changes.
The CVRT test makes sure that, every year, all goods and passenger vehicles on the road have been fairly tested. The test identifies vehicle failure points on items tested in accordance with CVRT manuals.
The legislation states that all commercial vehicles must be tested when they are over one years old and annually after that. So having a vehicle tested means avoidance of penalty points and fines.
These will be the first changes to costs of services since 2012, and in some cases since 2011.
RSA penalty points
There was also news this week that the RSA is planning to introduce speeding awareness courses as an alternative to penalty points.
The penalty points system for driving offences was introduced in Ireland In October 2002. The system was extended to insurance, seat belt wearing and careless driving offences in 2003 and 2004.
The aim of penalty points is to improve driver behaviour in Ireland and reduce the levels of death and serious injury on our roads.