Mr. Brendan Walsh:

As I previously said to Senator Craughwell, if he was aware of somewhere where they were doing virtual driving lessons, we would love to look into it because it is not something that is offered in Ireland today. What I can tell the Deputy is that we are currently looking at introducing a project on hazard perception testing, which is an additional layer that customers can go through as they are going through their “learner to licence” journey, and which would be around helping them to understand and identify risks on the road. That is something that forms part of our road safety strategy and both Mr. Waide and I are very passionate about it. We are actively engaged with a supplier out of the UK around how we could possibly introduce that into Ireland. Our thoughts around that are not just about encompassing it into the driving test or driver learning process, and we also believe there could be benefits, which we would like to look into, around offering individuals the opportunity to take a refresh at some point after holding a licence for several years. If someone wanted to check themselves against what a hazard perception test is, we think it would be a good exercise in road safety.