Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

It is not good enough. The only available handbook on the rules of the road for learner drivers is ten years old, which is not acceptable. If the Minister had any interest at all in road safety, he would have dealt with this as a matter of urgency. It is not acceptable to have ten year old booklets available.

In most cases, less than two weeks' notice is given to a candidate for a driving test. There are cases where people are on holidays or where they find it difficult to get time off work or other responsibilities. Some indication should be given to people so that they can have an idea of when the test is to take place. The people who have access to the website can find that, which is fair enough. However, not everybody is in that situation. I have come across people who have only had about one week's notice. That causes much difficulty so I ask the Minister to look at it.

Another area deals with the extension of the test to cover certain minor mechanical aspects of the operation of a car. In September 2003, the former Minister for Transport, Deputy Brennan, spoke about these mechanical tests and stated that the radical new regulations were being introduced within weeks to bring Ireland into line with European requirements. The current Minister made a lot of this in his speech as it was embarrassing when the EU decided to take action against Ireland for its failure to comply. He made a lot of it in his speech, but he played it down. Yet in September 2003, his predecessor stated that it was an urgent matter and would have to be done in a matter of weeks. Like so many aspects of the work that the former Minister supposedly carried out in the Department, nothing further was heard of it.

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