Unaccompanied learner driver in Ireland: the €160 fixed charge, the points and the seized car

A learner permit lets you drive, but not alone. The permit's condition is that a qualified driver sits beside you, and driving without one is a fixed charge offence with its own line on the RSA's table: €160 and two penalty points, four on conviction. Since 2018 the Garda can also seize the car, and the owner who let you take it alone commits an offence of their own. In 2025 the Garda issued about 19,000 notices to learner and novice drivers.

This guide is for the learner with a notice, the learner whose car was taken, and the parent whose car it was.

The rule: who must sit beside you

A learner permit holder must be accompanied by a qualified driver. Citizens Information and the RSA state the condition: the accompanying driver must have held a full licence for the category of vehicle for at least two years, must sit in the front passenger seat, and must be in a state to take over if needed. A friend who passed the test last year does not meet it; a parent who has driven for twenty years but whose licence is for a different category does not either; a person over the drink driving limit does not.

The L plates are a separate condition of the permit, and so is the ban on motorways. Driving outside any condition of the permit is driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence, and the unaccompanied case is the one the Oireachtas singled out for a fixed charge, points and seizure.

The €160 and the windows

An unaccompanied learner notice is a fixed charge notice under Part 3 of the Road Traffic Act 2010, handed over at the roadside or posted. It gives you:

• 28 days to pay €160, with two penalty points;
• a further 28 days to pay €240 (the charge plus 50%), with the same two points;
• a summons after that.

Paying is an admission of the offence. It is not a conviction and leaves no criminal record, but the two points are endorsed on your licence record 28 days after the notice of endorsement and last three years. The fixed charge notice clock gives the dates; the guide to a fixed charge notice explains the windows.

The Garda cancels a notice only on listed grounds (an emergency, a medical reason, a mistaken vehicle, a stolen plate, a statutory exemption). A medical emergency that left no alternative is on the list; needing to get to work or to a test centre is not.

The seven-point threshold

This is where the learner's arithmetic differs from everyone else's. A learner permit holder, or a novice in the first two years of a full licence, is disqualified for six months at seven points within three years, not twelve. Every point offence counts towards the seven.

Two unaccompanied-driving notices paid (four points) and one speeding notice paid (three) is seven. One unaccompanied conviction in court (four) and one phone notice paid (three) is seven. Three unaccompanied notices paid is six, one short. The penalty points calculator adds the two (or four) on the notice to what you have and shows the date each block expires; the six-month disqualification and the notice that announces it are explained in the guide to the 12-point and 7-point disqualification.

The points endorsed while you are a learner stay on your record for their full three years. When you pass the test they come with you, and they count towards the seven for the two novice years and towards the twelve after that.

The car can be seized: the Clancy Amendment

The Road Traffic (Amendment) Act 2018 added the power that people call the Clancy Amendment, after the family whose campaign led to it. Since it was commenced the Garda may detain a vehicle being driven by an unaccompanied learner, at the roadside, and bring it to a pound. The learner is left at the side of the road.

Getting the car back means attending with the documents and a qualified driver, and paying the recovery and storage charges set by the regulations. The seizure is separate from the notice: paying to recover the car does not cancel the notice, and paying the notice does not release the car.

The owner's offence

The same 2018 Act made it an offence for the owner of a vehicle to allow a learner permit holder to drive it unaccompanied. The owner is usually a parent. The owner's offence has no fixed charge; it is a summons to the District Court, and on conviction the court can fine the owner within the maximum the Act fixes. The owner's defence, where there is one, is that they did not allow it: the keys were taken without permission, or the learner said an accompanying driver was coming.

A parent whose child has taken the car alone more than once should know that the second summons is harder to answer than the first.

The court route

If both windows pass, a summons issues against the learner and the case is listed in the District Court. Once a summons has issued, the third payment option under section 44 of the 2010 Act lets you pay double the original charge, €320, up to seven days before the court date and end the prosecution with the two fixed-charge points.

At a hearing the garda gives evidence that you were driving on a learner permit with nobody qualified beside you, and you can give yours. The usual dispute is whether the passenger was qualified; a passenger who held a full licence for less than two years is not, and the court hears that from the licence record. On conviction the four points are endorsed automatically and the court sets a fine, taking your means into account under the Fines Act 2010; it can disqualify in a serious case, and since 31 March 2025 the points are endorsed even where it imposes an ancillary disqualification of up to six months. The site does not predict what a judge decides.

A conviction is a criminal record, which becomes spent after seven years as a minor District Court motoring conviction; see the guide to spent convictions. It can be appealed to the Circuit Court within 14 days; the guide to appealing penalty points and contesting a notice explains the route and the 2025 outcomes.

Insurance on a learner permit

A learner driving alone is usually also driving outside the terms of the insurance policy, which commonly requires a learner to be accompanied. An insurer can refuse to indemnify a claim on that ground. Where the policy did not cover the journey at all, the learner faces a separate charge of driving without insurance, which is court only and carries five points or a disqualification of at least two years; the guide to driving without insurance explains it. Insurers ask about points and convictions at renewal, and a false answer can void the policy.

Where this leaves you

If the notice is in your hand, the two points are the part that lasts, and on a seven-point threshold they matter. Put them into the penalty points calculator with any points you already have; the fixed charge notice clock gives you the dates to pay by.

If the car was seized, ring the pound named on the notice you were given and bring a qualified driver when you collect it. If a summons has arrived, for you or for the car's owner, if you may qualify for legal aid, ask the judge for it at your first appearance; the legal aid page explains the two tests. A solicitor can tell you whether the passenger beside you met the rule, which is the whole of the case.