Vol. 394 No. 8
470 Mr. Byrne asked the Minister for Tourism and Transport the number of hauliers who have failed to pass the examination as set by the Chartered Institute of Transport for carriers' licences; and if he has any proposals regarding the owner-drivers who are not so academically inclined and although having worked in a self-employed driver capacity for years now find the exam too difficult to sit, as many have only a limited formal education.
Examinations in professional competence have been held twice yearly since December 1977. It would not be possible to give accurate figures of the pass-failure rate for all of the 26 examinations since then as some candidates who failed in one examination often succeeded in a subsequent one. The position for 1988 was that out of a total of 1,497 candidates who entered for both national and international road haulage examinations, 632 failed. In 1989, out of a total of 1,753 candidates, 520 failed.
I want to emphasise that the purpose of the directive on access to the profession of road haulage operator is to ensure that road haulage operators are better qualified. In this way they are better equipped to contribute to improvement in the quality of the service, to greater road safety and to the rationalisation of the market. All of this consequently rebounds to the benefit of users, operators and the economy as a whole.
