Mr. Keith Walsh:

I thank the Deputy. As she knows, the policy objectives have been agreed and the regulations are being drafted. Effectively, this will mean it will only be possible for someone to be issued a third learner permit after taking and failing a test. It will also specify learners will only be able to hold a learner permit for seven years before they must start the learning-to-drive process again. That is the policy objective that has been agreed. We have, in the Department, drafted the regulations for the Minister to sign. We will very shortly be presenting those regulations to the Minister to sign. The only outstanding piece then, if the Minister signs them, is date on which those changes will take effect. We have to be conscious that there is quite a body of people who are driving on learner permits - 60,000 or so, depending on when you look at the figures - and while I fully agree they should not be continuing to drive on learner permits, we have to deal with the reality that there are 60,000 people driving on those permits and we need to give them time to prepare for this change. We are working with the RSA on how it can help them through that change process as well. We will be very shortly bringing the regulations to the Minister with a proposed timeline for implementation, effectively a data from which this will take effect. That date will be informed by the implementation plan we are working through with the RSA. It will ultimately be a decision of the Minister as to what date to go with.