Is drink driving a criminal record in Ireland?

Yes, if you are convicted. A drink driving conviction in the District Court is a criminal conviction and goes on your record. A fixed penalty notice paid in time is not. This guide explains the difference, what a conviction is recorded as, the seven-year spent convictions rule and why drink driving is within it, what Garda vetting and a police certificate show, and the questions the United States, Canada and Australia ask at the border.

The conviction and the notice

Two routes, two records.

A conviction in court. A summons for a reading over 100 mg, a specified driver over 80 mg, a reading in a lower band where the notice conditions were not met, driving while incapable of proper control, or refusing a specimen, ends on conviction with a criminal record. The conviction is recorded on the Garda's PULSE system (see the glossary) with the offence, the date, the court and the sentence. The disqualification is recorded separately on your NDLS licence record.

A fixed penalty notice. Since 26 October 2018 the Road Traffic Act 2010, section 29, as amended by the Road Traffic (Amendment) Act 2018, lets the Garda deal with readings up to 100 mg (up to 80 mg for a specified driver) by notice where you hold a valid licence, had no such notice in the previous three years, and pay within 28 days. Paying the notice is not a conviction. There is no court, no PULSE conviction entry and nothing to disclose when asked about convictions. The three or six month disqualification is on your NDLS record, and a question about disqualifications has to be answered.

Which route you are on is decided by the reading and the conditions; the first offence guide walks through it.

What a conviction means day to day

Until the conviction is spent, it is disclosed when:

• an employer runs Garda vetting for a role that requires it;
• you apply for a police certificate for a visa or for work abroad;
• a form asks about convictions and you answer it, which includes insurance, some professional registrations and some licences;
• the courts and the Garda look at your record, in any later case.

A drink driving conviction is not on the schedule of offences that are always disclosed on vetting, and it is not the kind of conviction that bars most work. But a job that involves driving, a professional registration, or an employer's own policy can make it matter. The sister site has a guide on a conviction and your job.

Spent after seven years

The Criminal Justice (Spent Convictions and Certain Disclosures) Act 2016 lets a conviction become spent seven years after its effective date where the sentence was a fine, a community service order, a suspended sentence, or custody of twelve months or less. For a fine, the effective date is the date of conviction. For custody or community service, it is the date the sentence was completed.

The Act allows only one conviction to be spent, with a carve-out: minor motoring offences dealt with in the District Court, and minor public order offences dealt with there, do not count towards that limit and can each become spent. A District Court drink driving conviction is treated as within that carve-out, so it becomes spent after seven years whatever else is on the record, and it does not use up the allowance for a later unrelated conviction. The District Court's maximum of six months for drink driving means the twelve-month custody ceiling is never crossed.

A drug driving conviction in the District Court is in the same position.

Once spent, the Act removes the duty to disclose the conviction in answer to a question, with exceptions: disclosure is still required to the Garda and the courts, for applications for certain licences and roles listed in the Act, and where a specific law requires it. The record is not deleted; what changes is what you must say. The spent conviction calculator gives the date, and the spent convictions guide covers the Act in full. A Private Member's Bill to widen the Act stalled in 2018 and the Department has consulted on broadening it, with no Government Bill published by October 2026; the changes page tracks it.

Garda vetting

Garda vetting under the National Vetting Bureau Acts applies to work with children and vulnerable people and to roles where an organisation is registered to vet. Section 14A of those Acts, which sits alongside the 2016 Act, means a single conviction more than seven years old, committed when you were 18 or over, where the sentence was completed and the offence is not on the excluded schedule, is not disclosed. Drink driving is not on the excluded schedule.

In the seven years after conviction it is disclosed. The vetting disclosure goes to the organisation, which decides what it means for the role; a drink driving conviction is not a bar to vetting itself. Specified information, which concerns a risk to children or vulnerable people, is a separate category that a drink driving conviction does not usually engage. The Garda vetting site sets out what is disclosed, and the vetting and travel guide explains the procedure.

A police certificate

A police certificate, issued by the Garda for a visa or for work abroad, discloses all convictions, whether or not spent under Irish law. The receiving country reads it under its own rules. If you are applying for a visa that needs one, the conviction is on it.

Travel

Each country asks its own question and applies its own law. The Irish spent convictions rule does not travel.

United States. The ESTA visa waiver form asks whether you have been arrested or convicted of a crime that resulted in serious damage to property or serious harm to another person or a government authority, and about drug offences. A drink driving conviction alone is not usually treated as a crime involving moral turpitude and is not usually a bar to the waiver. The answer must be truthful, and the question includes arrests. A drug driving conviction raises the drug question. Where there is any doubt, a visa application at the embassy, with the police certificate, is the route that does not risk a refusal at the airport.

Canada. Canada treats impaired driving as a serious offence and a conviction can make you inadmissible. Rehabilitation can be applied for after five years, and a temporary resident permit is the route before that. Canada asks about convictions regardless of spent status.

Australia. Visa applications ask about any conviction. The character test fails a person with a substantial criminal record, which means a sentence of twelve months or more; a District Court drink driving sentence does not reach that, but the question must still be answered.

United Kingdom. The UK applies its own rehabilitation periods, and a fine or a short sentence becomes spent under UK law on its own timetable, which is shorter than Ireland's seven years for a fine.

Lying on a border form is treated far more seriously than the conviction itself.

What is not a conviction

For completeness, the things on the drink driving road that are not convictions: a fixed penalty notice paid in time; a charge struck out or dismissed; a Probation of Offenders Act 1907 section 1(1) dismissal, which is rare on a drink driving charge because the disqualification follows the finding regardless; and an arrest that did not lead to a charge. An arrest is still an arrest for the ESTA question.

Where this leaves you

Put the date of the conviction and the sentence into the spent conviction calculator: it gives the date the conviction becomes spent, confirms the motoring carve-out, and sets out what vetting, a police certificate and each travel form will show in the meantime.

If you have not yet been to court, the record is one reason people get a solicitor; if you may qualify for legal aid, ask the judge for it at your first appearance. The support page lists services if the conviction has cost you work or more.