| In the last few days the Irish Transport Minister | | | | such established protocol with the result that the |
| has received yet another set back to his ill | | | | roads are a free for all and populated by tens of |
| conceived plans to outsource the handling of | | | | thousands of Learner Drivers who think that all |
| Driving Tests by a Private Company. Successive | | | | they have to do is sit in the Driving seat and turn |
| transport Ministers over the last number of years | | | | the Ignition on and all will be well! |
| have had to grapple with many anomalies in the | | | | Until there is mandatory tuition and a sensible |
| Driving scene in Ireland. Each one has thrown | | | | system to regulate the numbers of beginner |
| himself wholeheartedly into the fray and buckled | | | | drivers applying for the Driving Test the waiting |
| down to the task of addressing his own favourite | | | | list will continue to rise inexorably. We are not |
| topic. | | | | saying for one moment that driving should be |
| That's all well and good but unfortunately the | | | | restricted to the privileged; more that there |
| Democratic system of Government has a habit | | | | should be a recognised period of Driver Education |
| of throwing up Cabinet reshuffles every so often | | | | and preparation and a stricter control of Drivers |
| and occasionally a change of Political Party. All of | | | | flaunting the basic laws of survival. |
| this means that when change takes place, the | | | | A free for all leads to the kind of catastrophic rise |
| agenda changes with it and little gets done or | | | | in accident statistics that we are seeing currently, |
| implemented in the way of new Driving Legislation. | | | | which incidentally is being fuelled relentlessly by the |
| The lengthy delays in getting a Driving Test | | | | large numbers of new Immigrants. As you might |
| appointment in Ireland have as much to do with | | | | imagine these new arrivals are doing what they |
| the colossal numbers of new drivers entering the | | | | see others doing or getting away with, and in |
| fray as it does with Governmental inactivity. | | | | addition mostly come from countries with an |
| One in five of Ireland's drivers are beginners, a | | | | even worse record of road fatalities than our |
| total of 405,000 souls wandering around aimlessly, | | | | own. |
| and far too many of them stay in the Learner | | | | So it's a problem spiralling out of control leading to |
| Driver bracket for far too long due to the lack of | | | | untold personal and family misery and a huge |
| mandatory tuition. | | | | drain on the local resources which are not |
| Most Countries in Europe have a well established | | | | equipped to deal with the carnage on such a level. |
| routine for Learner Drivers who are not | | | | As we have said several times recently there will |
| permitted to sit a Driving Test until they are | | | | come a time when the killing has to stop and |
| ready .Who is to say when they are ready? Good | | | | preventative action becomes the norm. Just when |
| question and a very easily answered one...the | | | | that will be is open to conjecture! Until then every |
| Driving School that teaches them! | | | | learner driver has effectively been given an 007 |
| In Ireland unfortunately at present we have no | | | | attachment to their Provisional License. |