Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 3 June 2020
879. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will address a matter regarding the conducting of driver tests (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8481/20]
View answerI am disappointed that my observations would be taken as implying that the driving test would not resume in the present year. I have referred to the obvious difficulties of holding a driving test while ensuring the health and safety of testers and test candidates, and explained that it is likely that the driving test will not resume until phase 5 of the Government's Roadmap for reopening the county.
I am well aware of the difficulties which the suspension of driver testing services has caused, but as Minister I do not have the option of focusing on certain difficulties and ignoring the wider aspects of public safety. There could be no justification for risking the safety of learner drivers or other road users by granting them licences without a test - without proving that they are suited to be qualified drivers.
Figures show that only 52% of candidates passed the driving test in 2019. These people had all completed the mandatory programme of lessons. I presume that their instructors advised the other 48%, or most of them, that they were ready to take the test. Instructors are not testers, and their views of their pupils' driving abilities, however well-intentioned they might be, are hardly independent.
Passing a driving test to the specified standards is a prerequite under EU law. It is there for public safety. To suggest that this vital safety standard should be waived because of the inconvenience caused by other essential safety measures - in this case the closure of the driver testing service for health reasons - is rather bizarre. This would leave us with people getting a full licence who had not qualified for it, and who could be a risk to public safety on our roads for decades to come.
The driver testing service will open when it is safe to do so. The safety of the public on our roads will not be compromised in the meantime.
