IRHA says driving test delays forcing young Louth drivers to break the law

The Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) has claimed that driving test delays are forcing young drivers in Louth to break the law, and is calling for a root and branch review of the Road Safety Authority and their operation of the Irish driving test system.

The IRHA says that an inadequate testing system is forcing young learner drivers out on our roads without a full license, and says it is concerned for the safety of its drivers who are coming across inexperienced drivers on a daily basis on Irish roads.

New figures provided by Gardaí show dramatic increases in the number of learner drivers caught driving unaccompanied. In the Louth, Cavan, Monaghan Garda division there was a 22% increase year on year in the number of unaccompanied learner drivers caught by Gardai. 

According to the IRHA, young drivers, in particular in rural Ireland, need their car to get to work and significant delays in the driver testing system are forcing young learner drivers to make difficult choices. The IRHA President Ger Hyland emphasised that his association is in no way condoning young learner drivers driving without a fully licensed driver.

He said that more unaccompanied learner drivers on our roads presents a "clear and present danger" to his member’s drivers. Hyland attributed the current rises in the number of unaccompanied learner drivers on our roads as a direct result of the mismanagement of the driver test system by the RSA and has called for the Road Safety Authority to be reformed and restructured.

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Mr Hyland has called for a radical overhaul of our driving test system to include testing for motorway driving skills, night time driving and safe overtaking on secondary roads. He has branded our testing system a laughing stock and compared it to a pilot being taught how to fly a plane without ever leaving the runway.

“The current 40 minute driving test allows for an approximate driving time of between 15 and 20 minutes, often in heavy urban slow moving traffic. This would be a great test of one’s ability to sit in a traffic jam, but if we are honestly testing driving skills and driver preparedness, the test as it stands is a shambolic exercise in raising funds for the RSA.

"The increases in the numbers of learner drivers caught driving unaccompanied is only the ones Gardaí are catching and we feel this is just the tip of the iceberg”

The Irish Road Haulage Association has called for driver education to be a part of the school curriculum and have suggested that each student would be vigorously tested in their ability to drive before they leave secondary school.