Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 26 September 2012
214. Deputy Brian Walsh asked the Minister for Transport; Tourism and Sport if he will consider extending a derogation on regulations making ABS mandatory for classes of representative vehicles for the purpose of the driving test in view of safety concerns arising from the fact that drivers taught and tested in vehicles with ABS would lack familiarity in vehicles without ABS, which they may subsequently be required to drive. [40849/12]
View answerFrom 19 January 2013 onwards, all vehicles used to undertake the driving test for categories C, EC, EC1, C1, D, ED, D1 and ED1 are required to be fitted with anti-lock brakes, regardless of the year of registration.
However, following discussions with schools of motoring who would be affected by this change, it was decided that more time was required to allow some schools to upgrade their fleet to meet the new requirements, and a 10 year derogation until the 30 June 2014 was allowed Thus, vehicles registered before the 1 January 2004 can still be presented to the driving test until the 30 June 2014, and there is no requirement to have anti-lock braking systems for these vehicles.
In examining the long term effects of extending this derogation further, consideration must be given to the age of vehicles driving on our roads. At the moment, 58% of Goods Vehicles are registered after the 1 January 2004, with the remaining 42% registered pre-2004. Naturally, the number of post 2004 vehicles registered will grow or remain higher than the older vehicles, which means we will have a larger number of vehicles on our roads which are fitted with anti-lock braking systems.
Extending the derogation would have the consequence of the reverse of what is suggested, in that if drivers are taught and tested in vehicles which do not have anti-lock braking systems, they would then lack the familiarity of driving vehicles with these systems, and if these vehicles are more prevalent than older vehicles, this would also cause a safety concern. Ensuring that these vehicles are required to be presented at test will mean that training on these vehicles is completed prior to the driving test, including training on braking systems.
