Vol. 434 No. 5
69 Mrs. Doyle asked the Minister for the Environment whether a driving instructor may accompany a learner driver as a non-involved observer during a driving test, as is the case in Britain and Northern Ireland; and if the law precludes this option, the plans, if any, he has to introduce legislation to allow nervous learner drivers have their instructor sit in the back seat during the driving test.
While there is no legal prohibition on the presence of other persons in test vehicles during the course of driving tests, I do not consider that the presence of persons other than the driver and the tester would be conducive to an appropriate test regime. I do not, therefore, propose to change the present arrangements for the conduct of driving tests. I might mention that a supervisory driver tester accompanies the driver tester in the test car on occasions for the purpose of ensuring the application of common test standards.
