Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 15 Oct 1996

Vol. 470 No. 1

Adjournment Debate. - Driving Test Regulations.

Cecilia Keaveney

I thank the Chair for giving me this opportunity to raise a matter which is especially important to young people. I refer to the issue of driving licences and the associated driving test.

Currently, young people are being discriminated against in an unfair manner, and I ask that the situation be reviewed immediately. A person aged 18 who gets a provisional licence is likely to spend this first licence just learning to drive. Many young people go through the first two licences learning to drive, if they have access to a car. If a person does not take the test by then, he or she may not get a third or subsequent licence.

The rules relating to provisional licences indicate that a person can be regarded as an applicant for a first provisional licence only after five years has elapsed from the time they previously held a provisional licence. This amounts to a five-year ban, which is unfair, and I would like the Minister to clarify the matter.

Many third level students have a licence which they renew in order to be able to learn to drive but do not have the time to properly address their driving lessons, and time can run out unexpectedly for them. This can mean that somebody looking for a job which specifies the need for a car is automatically faced with a battle to get a subsequent licence. Similarly, people who are unemployed when they leave secondary school may have an interest in learning to drive but may not have the financial resources to follow up a strict regime of learning to drive. Either way, a person who reaches the age of 22 or 23 can find himself or herself in no-man's-land when trying to get a third or subsequent licence. Surely it is very harsh treatment if there is a five-year wait before they are treated as first-time provisional licence holders again.

It is galling that many people convicted of serious driving offences are disqualified from driving from six months to a year. If people who want to learn legally to drive a car are effectively banned by the current regulations and others who have been convicted of an offence are back on the road, is this not an anomaly? Young people have enough burdens in relation to mobility without the added complication of having to fight a case over years for a subsequent provisional driving licence. The cost of car insurance for young people makes it almost impossible for young people to drive a car. Insurance companies are planning to increase insurance premiums by five to ten per cent. The rates for under 25s makes one wonder how anyone can afford to drive even if they had a provisional or full driving licence. The cost of insurance might explain why someone might not have a provisional licence, but that is an issue for another day.

I again ask the Minister to clarify and, if necessary, review the five-year wait and replace it with something more humane and more in line with punishments meted out for the serious offences. I ask the Minister to look at the exceptional circumstances clause in relation to the third or subsequent licence and make the provisional licence accessible. This would be in the interest of having people legally on the road, not sitting at home waiting for a bus, because in rural areas the wait can be long. Travel broadens the mind; perhaps the Minister would broaden the rules.

Mr. J. Walsh

I wish to support everything that my colleague, Deputy Keaveney has said. This matter has been brought to my attention by a number of younger people. One case in point is that of a young teacher in Roscarberry in my constituency who applied for and got a provisional licence, became familiar with driving and did her test on the second licence. She failed the test. She applied to the licensing authority in the County Hall in Cork to be told that she could not get another provisional licence for five years. She was appalled because she had a job and had to drive to work. She made the case that people who have been convicted as a result of serious irregularities, accidents, sometimes drunken driving, can get back on the road in about six months, but she has been sentenced to a five-year term off the road. I would like the Minister to look sympathetically at changing the statutory order relating to this matter, to give young people a chance by allowing them to have three provisional licences and by reducing the five years very substantially to, perhaps, one year. I am not saying that people should be able to get 15 provisional licences. I am just asking the Minister to look more humanely and sympathetically at the matter.

Minister of State at the Department of the Environment (Mr. Allen)

I am happy to clarify the situation in relation to granting provisional licences and driving tests. I would like to thank Deputies Keaveney and Walsh for raising this matter.

The purpose of the provisional driving licence system is to facilitate persons who wish to learn to drive in order to pass a driving test. The provisional licence was never intended to be an ongoing permit to drive — that is the purpose of the driving licence which is available only to those who pass the driving test.

Over the years, far too many people have been able to drive, year after year, on the basis of a provisional licence, often in noncompliance with the law as regards being accompanied by a qualified driver. Up to 1984, the only requirement necessary to allow renewal of a provisional licence was evidence of having applied for a driving test. There was no absolute need to actually sit the test and many people simply applied for a test, took out a new provisional licence, then cancelled the application for the test, and were refunded the test fee.

Obviously, this practice could not be permitted to continue. While the letter of the law was being met, the spirit was being flouted, and people were allowed go on driving for years with only a provisional licence and with clear implications for safety on our roads.

In March 1994, therefore, the Minister's predecessor, Deputy Michael Smith, made amending regulations which made it a requirement for eligibility for a third or subsequent provisional licence that an applicant would have undergone a driving test within the previous two years. These regulations came into effect on 1 August 1994. The changes could not be said to have been unreasonable; they were designed simply to encourage people to undergo the driving test and qualify for a full driving licence as soon as possible.

After the new regulations were made, initial approaches by applicants for a third and subsequent provisional licence, who had not undergone the driving test, were dealt with in a flexible manner by licensing authorities where applicants indicated that they were unaware of the new regulations. Each such individual was informed in writing, however, that on the next occasion two years later a further licence would not be available unless he or she had undergone the test. Such people, therefore, had two years in which to complete their preparations and undergo the test. It appears, however, that numbers of them did not do so.

The Minister does not wish to put people off the road without good reason but, at the same time, he wants to ensure that the basic purpose of the 1994 regulations is generally confirmed. He is anxious that people will not be trapped in a classic dilemma of being able neither to get a new licence nor to undergo the driving test, and he is having the regulations specially examined with a view to finding an acceptable solution to this. I assure the House that the Minister will take action on the matter at an early date.