Ms Verona Murphy:

Currently, drivers sit a seven-hour course which is completed once a year for five years. Each module is different, but many of the modules are outdated and antiquated. The content of the booklets that are provided to drivers is such that many of them spend most of the time ridiculing them because much of the mechanical emphasis is outdated and even no longer in existence. They have difficulty with the fact that many of the trainers have no experience in the area in which they are delivering the course. That is not in all cases but if the drivers want a question answered in respect of some of the courses in the modules, the person delivering the course must have either experience of driving a truck or experience in some shape or form in the commercial area. If the driver cannot have a question answered, the deliverer is undermined straight away and interest is lost. These courses are about updating the drivers, but there is not much updating if the content is antiquated. I sat my CPC course in 1989 and the content being delivered today is still the same.

We have been seeking to have this overhauled for a long time. In fairness, we had a meeting recently with Moyagh Murdock of the Road Safety Authority, RSA, and she is quite interested. In the UK, for example, this course can be constructed for any individual type of transport. If one is a car carrier, one can devise one's own course pertinent to the profession for a person who is tying down and loading cars. That can be passed by the Department for Transport and delivered specifically to meet the needs of the drivers. That does not exist in Ireland. The delivery is the same in that it is seven hours, but it is pertinent to the driver's practice. That is very important. At present, the Scania truck manufacturer offers a driver training course which costs €350. This is beneficial to the company, of course, in that the drivers will get the most from its vehicles, but it is also beneficial to the environment if the truck is being driven correctly in terms of carbon emissions and so forth. Everybody benefits. That should be regarded as a module. It is about improvements in safety. Other manufacturers are entitled to deliver the same courses. There is no reason that something of that nature cannot be regarded as a module in the CPC. It is professional competence.