Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 18 March 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport

Impact of Covid-19 on Driving Instructors: Unite the Union

Photo of Cathal CroweCathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Such is life.

I welcome our witnesses. I have a number of friends who are driving instructors and they have been burning my ear on this issue for many months. Unite the Union is right to become organised and to talk to us this morning. One of its key asks is that it be at the table. As one of my colleagues just said, it is the most reasonable request of all that decision-making does not happen with the union’s exclusion, and that is quite important.

I want to hone in on one particular issue. I am conscious that time is restricted and I imagine there will be an element of repetition in many of our questions today, so I will ask about something a little different that has been brought to my attention by a number of leaving certificate students who hope to enrol in the paramedic course at the University of Limerick. It is the only third level course in the country where a requirement of entry is not just what people have attained in the leaving certificate, but also that they have, at a minimum, a C1 licence so that, early in their course of study, they can begin learning how ambulance work is done.

Many of these students are in a pickle at the moment. They are 17 or 18 years of age. They are awaiting CAO offers later in the summer and, by August, those offers will be in place and they will have to accept those offers. I am in contact with a number of these students who are awaiting a B licence, which is the regular car licence. They are awaiting theory tests and although they have applied repeatedly, it has been put off. Even if they got a theory test in the middle of April or early May, which is probably the most realistic timeframe, although it may not come to pass, there is a legal requirement in Ireland that people have to wait six months after getting their theory test before doing the full test and getting a licence. Therefore, even in a best-case scenario, a particular student in Clare and many more like him will not have a provisional C1 licence until October of this year, meaning that he and many more like him cannot undertake this course of study.

These are front-line workers in waiting but they cannot undertake this course of study, which is the only such course. I know people will list off all the professions that are considered to be essential at this time but no one is more essential than our front-line health staff, as Covid has proven. I would like to hear the thoughts of the witnesses. Are they aware of this anomaly? As people who offer driver instruction, do they think there are shortfalls in how we categorise essential workers and non-essential workers? This student I am speaking about, and others like him, are essential workers in waiting but they cannot do a paramedic course unless they sit in one of the vehicles and go through all of this training process. Are the witnesses aware of that? Could they suggest ways in which this could be ameliorated before we get to that edge-of-the-cliff point in August where they cannot undertake the study?

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