Registry entry

Ireland Driving Licence Renewal (NDLS)

Renew an individual's Irish driving licence through the National Driver Licence Service (NDLS), the single nationwide authority for licence applications and renewals in Ireland (a single service replaces the county-by-county model used before 2013). This document models the two renewal channels — online at ndls.ie (using a Public Services Card and a verified MyGovID account) and in person at an NDLS centre by appointment — including the eligibility window, address/residency proof gates, the medical and eyesight report triggers, and the fee/payment rules. It does not model a first-time driving licence, adding or exchanging a category, a foreign-licence exchange, or a lost/stolen/damaged-licence replacement, each a distinct NDLS service; nor does it enumerate the individual licence categories being renewed (see Scope notes in VERIFICATION.md). It does not submit the renewal; the live ndls.ie/gov.ie sources are always authoritative (see VERIFICATION.md).

Registry entry

ie/dttas/driving-licence-renewal

Jurisdiction
Ireland · national
Version
1.0.0
Verification
draft
Authority
Road Safety Authority, National Driver Licence Service

GovSchema spec v0.2

Authoritative source https://www.ndls.ie/licensed-driver/renew-my-driving-licence.html

Machine access

Schema document
registry/ie/dttas/driving-licence-renewal/1.0.0/schema.jsonapplication/schema+json
Verification record
registry/ie/dttas/driving-licence-renewal/1.0.0/VERIFICATION.mdtext/markdown
Registry catalog
registry/index.jsonone record per schema id

Field reference

17 fields, read from the published schema.json — names, types, requiredness, and validation as the document states them. The live government form remains the authoritative source.

Fields

  • applicationChannel enum required

    online = renew through ndls.ie using a Public Services Card (PSC) and a verified MyGovID account, with no paper forms, no appointment, and no need to visit an NDLS centre; in_person = book an appointment and attend one of the 34 NDLS centres nationwide, where photo and signature are captured digitally (no printed photo required).

    enum: online | in_person
  • eligibleWithinRenewalWindow boolean required

    A hard eligibility gate: renewal through this service is only possible if the current licence is expiring within 3 months or expired less than 10 years ago. If false (expired 10 years or more ago), the applicant must complete the Driver Theory Test and apply for a learner permit instead — a different, out-of-scope process.

  • currentAddressDiffersFromPSC boolean required

    If true, proof of address dated within the last six months must be provided (addressProofDocument). For in_person applicants renewing a lost, stolen, or damaged licence, this compares against the address recorded on that permit instead of the PSC application.

  • addressProofDocument file optional

    Required when currentAddressDiffersFromPSC is true. Must be dated within the last six months.

  • birthplaceAndNationalityOutsideEUEEASwitzerlandUKOrNI boolean required

    If true, proof that the applicant is normally resident in Ireland must be provided (residencyProofDocument). ndls.ie states this test as place of birth AND nationality outside EU/EEA/Switzerland/UK/Northern Ireland; a secondary source (citizensinformation.ie) simplifies it to 'not an EU or EEA citizen' — the primary ndls.ie wording is followed here (see VERIFICATION.md).

  • residencyProofDocument file optional

    Required when birthplaceAndNationalityOutsideEUEEASwitzerlandUKOrNI is true.

  • includesGroup2Category boolean required

    true if any category on the licence being renewed is a Group 2 category — C, C1, CE, C1E, D, D1, or DE, D1E (buses, trucks, and articulated vehicles); false if all categories are Group 1 — AM, A1, A2, A, B, BE, or W (mopeds, motorcycles, cars, tractors, and work vehicles). Group 2 categories always require a medical report and cap the renewed licence's validity at 5 years, versus up to 10 years for Group 1. This document does not enumerate the specific categories held (see Scope notes in VERIFICATION.md).

  • agedSeventyFiveOrOver boolean required

    If true, a medical report is mandatory regardless of category, and the renewed licence is limited to a 3-year term, or a 1-year term if the certifying doctor specifically certifies fitness to drive for only one year.

  • medicalReportRequired boolean required

    true if any of the following apply: includesGroup2Category is true; agedSeventyFiveOrOver is true; the current licence/permit carries notation code 101 (renewal subject to a valid medical report); the applicant has a specific disability or condition affecting a Group 1 category; the applicant has ever suffered from alcoholism or epilepsy; the applicant regularly takes drugs or medication likely to make them an unsafe driver; or the applicant has one of the listed reportable medical conditions (e.g. insulin-treated diabetes, stroke/TIA, brain surgery, an implanted pacemaker or defibrillator, a chronic neurological condition, serious memory or psychiatric problems, Parkinson's disease, sleep apnoea, narcolepsy, a condition affecting peripheral vision or both eyes, total sight loss in one eye, serious hearing deficiency, or a condition restricting driving to an automatic or adapted vehicle).

  • medicalReportForm file optional

    Required when medicalReportRequired is true. Must be completed and signed (Part 1) by the applicant, and completed, certified, and dated (Part 2) by a registered medical practitioner in the applicant's presence, and submitted within one month of that date. The maximum term for higher (Group 2) categories on a full licence is 5 years.

  • eyesightReportRequired boolean required

    true if the applicant no longer needs glasses or contact lenses to drive (for example, after laser eye surgery) since their eyesight was last recorded on a licence application; otherwise, any eyesight issue is normally reported on the Medical Report Form instead.

  • eyesightReportForm file optional

    Required when eyesightReportRequired is true. Must be submitted within one month of completion.

  • ppsnProofPresented boolean optional

    Required (and must be true) when applicationChannel is in_person: proof of the applicant's Personal Public Service (PPS) Number must be brought to the appointment. Not applicable online, where identity is established through the PSC and verified MyGovID account.

  • physicalLicenceAvailable boolean optional

    Required when applicationChannel is in_person. If false (lost, stolen, or damaged), valid photo ID must be brought instead (photoIdDocument). Not applicable online.

  • photoIdDocument file optional

    Required when applicationChannel is in_person and physicalLicenceAvailable is false.

  • feeExemptionReason enum optional

    Set to age_70_or_over when the applicant is aged 70 or over, in which case no application fee is charged on either channel and paymentMethod does not apply. Applicants aged 70 or over receive a renewal reminder automatically by post.

    enum: age_70_or_over
  • paymentMethod enum optional

    Required when feeExemptionReason is not set. credit_or_debit_card is accepted on both channels; google_pay, apple_pay, and payzone_voucher are accepted only when applicationChannel is in_person. The fee is €65 for a standard renewal, or €35 for a 3-year renewal (e.g. ages 72-74); a 1-year medical-grounds renewal at age 75+ carries no fee.

    enum: credit_or_debit_card | google_pay | apple_pay | payzone_voucher

Verification record

This file is the source-review record for this document version, per the manual-source-review-v1 practice. It documents the provenance of the published fields and flow and states the current verification claim honestly.

Current claim

  • status: draft
  • verification.method: manual-source-review-v1
  • verification.lastVerifiedAt: 2026-07-01

The document was derived from and cross-checked against the official sources below, but the full field-by-field comparison the practice requires (manual-source-review-v1 → Procedure step 2) has not yet been completed and recorded against the live, authenticated online flow at ndls.ie (which sits behind a Public Services Card / MyGovID sign-in). It therefore remains draft, not verified.

Access constraint

ndls.ie returns HTTP 403 to direct automated requests (both the WebFetch tool and a direct curl), as does citizensinformation.ie. Every source page below was instead retrieved through a Wayback Machine snapshot (web.archive.org), following the pattern already used for passports.gov.au (see the gov-au-wayback-workaround precedent): a cheap curl "http://archive.org/wayback/available?url=<path>" check to find the closest snapshot, followed by a direct curl of the returned web.archive.org/web/<timestamp>/... URL. All snapshots resolved on the first or second attempt and returned full, current-looking HTML (not a JS shell or a bot-challenge page), except ndls.ie/licensed-driver/fees.html and ndls.ie/how-to-apply/applying-online.html, whose snapshots captured only a Cloudflare "One moment, please..." challenge page — those two pages were not used as sources; the fee amounts and payment-method list were instead confirmed from the "Renew My Driving Licence" page itself (which restates them) and from citizensinformation.ie's cost table.

Sources examined

  • Document (id, version): ie/dttas/driving-licence-renewal / 1.0.0
  • Spec version: GovSchema 0.2.0
  • Authority: Road Safety Authority (RSA), National Driver Licence Service (NDLS) — the single nationwide driver-licensing authority (NDLS replaced the county-council-run system in 2013).
  • Primary source URL: https://www.ndls.ie/licensed-driver/renew-my-driving-licence.html (retrieved via web.archive.org/web/20260520152741/...)
  • Secondary/supporting sources (all retrieved via Wayback):
  • Official form ids: D501 (Driving Licence Medical Report Form), D502 (Driving Licence Eyesight Report Form). Both are downloadable PDFs referenced from the medical-fitness page; neither was itself parsed field-by-field for this version. The report-content facts modelled (Part 1 applicant declaration, Part 2 doctor certification, one-month submission window, 5-year maximum term for Group 2) come from the guidance prose describing them.
  • Retrieved / reviewed: 2026-07-01 (Wayback snapshots dated between 2025-05-17 and 2026-05-20; each checked for staleness against the live page's own "last reviewed"-style content and found materially current — no conflicting fee, eligibility, or category information across snapshots of different vintage).
  • Reviewer: GovSchema Engineering (initial authoring source-review)

What was confirmed against the source

| Source element | Field(s) | |---|---| | Two renewal routes: online (ndls.ie, PSC + verified MyGovID, no forms/appointment) or in person (book an appointment, photo/signature captured digitally) | applicationChannel | | "You can apply to renew your driving licence if it is expiring within 3 months or it expired less than 10 years ago" / "If your licence expired more than 10 years ago, you must complete a Driver Theory Test..." | eligibleWithinRenewalWindow | | "Proof of your address dated within the last six months if your current address differs from the one you provided when you applied for your PSC" (both channels) | currentAddressDiffersFromPSC, addressProofDocument | | "Proof that you are normally resident in Ireland if your place of birth and nationality are outside the EU/EEA/Switzerland/UK/Northern Ireland" | birthplaceAndNationalityOutsideEUEEASwitzerlandUKOrNI, residencyProofDocument | | Licence category table (Group 1: AM/A1/A2/A/B/BE/W; Group 2: C/C1/CE/C1E/D/D1/DE/D1E) and the validity-duration table (10 years Group 1, 5 years Group 2, capped further by age) | includesGroup2Category | | "A medical report form is required ... where the driving licence or learner permit they are renewing expires the day before their 75th birthday" / age-75-or-over 3-year-or-1-year term rule | agedSeventyFiveOrOver | | Five medical-report triggers: C/D-category (Group 2); disability/condition for Group 1; notation code 101; alcoholism/epilepsy history; regular medication; the full reportable-condition list (diabetes on insulin, stroke/TIA, brain surgery, pacemaker/ICD, neurological conditions, memory/psychiatric problems, Parkinson's, sleep apnoea, narcolepsy, eyesight/hearing conditions, adapted/automatic-only restriction) | medicalReportRequired, medicalReportForm | | "You will need a Driving Licence Eyesight Report Form if you no longer need glasses or contact lenses to drive (for example, if you've had laser eye surgery)" | eyesightReportRequired, eyesightReportForm | | In-person requirement: "Proof of your personal public services number (PPSN)" | ppsnProofPresented | | In-person requirement: "Your current or most recent driving licence. If your licence has been lost, stolen or damaged you must also bring valid photo ID with you" | physicalLicenceAvailable, photoIdDocument | | "Application fee of €65.00 ... If you are aged 70 years or over you are exempt from paying the fee" | feeExemptionReason | | Online: credit/debit card only. In person: credit/debit card, Google Pay, Apple Pay, or Payzone voucher. Cost table: €65 (10-year/5-year), €35 (3-year), free (1-year medical) | paymentMethod |

Cross-source discrepancy noted and resolved

ndls.ie's own "Renew My Driving Licence" page states the residency-proof trigger as place of birth AND nationality being outside the EU/EEA/Switzerland/UK/Northern Ireland. citizensinformation.ie's guide simplifies this to "if you are not an EU or EEA citizen" — a narrower, citizenship-only test that also omits the Switzerland/UK/Northern Ireland carve-outs. Per source-of-truth fidelity, the primary ndls.ie wording was followed for birthplaceAndNationalityOutsideEUEEASwitzerlandUKOrNI's description; the secondary source's simplification is noted in the field description itself so a future reviewer isn't confused by the discrepancy if they consult citizensinformation.ie directly.

Scope and jurisdiction notes

  • Renewal only. A first-time driving licence, adding a category to an existing licence, exchanging a foreign licence, and a lost/stolen/damaged licence replacement are each documented as distinct NDLS services on their own guidance pages and are out of scope for this document.
  • Licence categories are not enumerated as data. The current spec (v0.2) field model is flat (§6.1) with no accepted repeating-value or array type (GSP-0009 is proposed, not accepted, and flagged as the highest-complexity, most one-way-door item pending explicit CEO consideration). A driving licence can carry multiple categories at once, and NDLS's own guidance groups them as "Group 1" and "Group 2" for the two purposes that actually matter to a renewal (medical-report trigger and validity-duration cap) rather than itemizing the full category list per applicant. This document follows that same Group 1/Group 2 flattening (includesGroup2Category) instead of inventing a fixed-cardinality set of per-category boolean fields, and does not model the "Add a Category to My Driving Licence" service at all. A future minor version could add per-category detail once GSP-0009 is accepted.
  • No applicant name/date-of-birth fields. Like gb/dvla/vehicle-tax and gb/dvla/driving-licence-renewal-photocard, the online channel is reached through an existing digital-identity account (Public Services Card + verified MyGovID) that already carries the applicant's identity and address on file; this document models the yes/no deltas the service asks about (address changed, medical report needed, etc.), not the underlying identity data itself. The in-person channel likewise authenticates by presenting the physical licence (or photo ID) and PPSN proof, not by re-entering personal details as form fields.
  • Fees are described qualitatively, not encoded as a price list, consistent with other reference schemas (e.g. gb/dvla/vehicle-tax). NDLS fees change periodically and are out of scope for a field-collection schema; the fee amounts appear only in field descriptions for context.
  • Not time-versioned. Applying GSP-0005 §2's coexistence test: the process does not encode a year-varying value (the fee/duration bands are age-based, not calendar-year-based) and its "editions" would not meaningfully coexist, so this is a plain v1.0.0 document, not an edition-axis schema.
  • Conditional requiredness that v0.2's flat/linear model cannot express (fields gated by applicationChannel, currentAddressDiffersFromPSC, birthplaceAndNationalityOutsideEUEEASwitzerlandUKOrNI, medicalReportRequired, eyesightReportRequired, or feeExemptionReason) is documented in field descriptions, per the limitation tracked in GSP-0004.

What is NOT yet independently verified

  • The exact online screen order and wording past the initial requirements list (e.g. declarations, review, and payment screens) were not captured screen-by-screen, since the online service sits behind PSC/MyGovID sign-in.
  • The D501 and D502 PDF forms themselves were not parsed field-by-field for this version (unlike, e.g., ie/dsp/pps-number-application's REG1 extraction); their content is modelled from guidance prose describing them.
  • ndls.ie/licensed-driver/fees.html and ndls.ie/how-to-apply/applying-online.html could not be read (their Wayback snapshots captured only a bot-challenge page); the fee and payment-method facts modelled here rely on the "Renew My Driving Licence" page's own restatement and on citizensinformation.ie's cost table instead.

Path to a verified claim (next step)

To advance to status: verified, a reviewer applies manual-source-review-v1 (Procedure step 2 field-by-field against the live authenticated online flow specifically, step 3 flow), confirms the source is authoritative, resolves any discrepancy by shipping a new schema version (immutability — VERSIONING §3, practice Procedure step 5), and records the outcome here plus sets status: verified with a current verification.lastVerifiedAt/nextReviewBy.

Re-verification

Per the practice's Cadence, nextReviewBy is set to 2027-01-01 (6 months). Re-check the source on or before that date and on any source.url change.

View the raw record (VERIFICATION.md)

Version history

  • 1.0.0 draft latest this page has verification record schema.json

Independent and non-affiliated

GovSchema is an independent, open-source project. This reference is not produced, reviewed, or endorsed by Road Safety Authority, National Driver Licence Service or any government. The authoritative source is always the live government form and its official instructions.