Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

When I re-examined the provision on unaccompanied learner drivers which was inserted into the Road Traffic Act 2016, one matter which came to my attention was the question of what should happen to a vehicle if gardaí intercept a learner driver unaccompanied. Section 41 of the 1994 Act allows the Garda Síochána to detain a vehicle in certain circumstances. These include cases where the vehicle is not taxed or insured or does not display a national car test, NCT, certificate when it should. Detention can also happen in cases where the member has reason to believe that the person has been disqualified from driving or where the person refused to produce a driving licence or learner permit and the member has reason to believe that, due to their age, the driver cannot be licensed to drive.

At present, however, the power to detain a vehicle does not extend to a vehicle driven by an unaccompanied learner driver. I believe this is an omission we should rectify. Imagine the scene at the roadside. A learner driver has been intercepted driving unaccompanied. The terms and conditions of a learner permit are clear and say that a person who has a learner permit should be accompanied. These people are therefore driving in an illegal way. It is wrong, irresponsible and dangerous. I do not believe anyone expects a garda dealing with a situation like this to take the person's details and let them drive off. How can they when the person does not have an accompanying driver?

I will explain briefly how this will work in practice. The rules will be exactly the same as those applying under section 41 if the vehicle is detained on any of the other grounds under that section. The vehicle will be towed away for storage. The owner will then be able to come and reclaim it. They will have to pay a charge for the removal and storage. If it turns out that the vehicle was incorrectly detained, there will be no charge for removal or storage. How could it be incorrectly detained? It is obvious that if a vehicle is detained because it is thought to be uninsured and the owner subsequently proves that it was insured at the time it was detained, it should not have been so detained and all charges are waived. In the case of unaccompanied learners, it might be that the learner had a qualified accompanying driver with them but the accompanying driver did not produce a licence and the member on duty did not accept that the accompanying driver was qualified. If the licence was later produced when the car was being retrieved from storage, there would be no charges.

Under section 41, the Garda has the power to dispose of a vehicle if it was not claimed within a certain period. This period is set in section 41 as being either three weeks or two weeks after a notice of disposal is sent to the owner, whichever is longer.

The reason the Oireachtas chose to act against unaccompanied learner drivers in 2016 was the risk that they can pose to themselves and others, particularly in the light of the appalling Clancy case where mother and daughter, Geraldine and Louise Clancy, lost their lives in an incident caused by an unaccompanied learner driver. Learner drivers are just that - people who are learning to drive. This is why the law requires them to have a qualified driver accompanying them whenever they drive.

Unaccompanied learner driving is illegal and it is dangerous. We need to get the false notion out of people's heads that once someone has a learner permit they are free to drive as they wish. A learner permit is not a licence. It is not something to use for commuting or leisure unless the learner has someone to accompany them. People who have said that somehow putting an end to unaccompanied learner driving will make life harder for people are missing the point. It will make them focus on learning and on getting a full licence and it will make them and all the rest of us safer.

I want to tackle the bizarre suggestion that this measure will in some way put farmers out of business because of the seizure of vital farm equipment. It has even been suggested in some quarters that gardaí will be entering farmyards to seize tractors driven by learners. We hear a lot these days about false news or scare tactics but these claims really take the Oscar. Road traffic law applies to public places. That means public roads and public car parks. It does not apply to farmyards, backyards, fields, front gardens, back gardens or anywhere else which is private land. The idea that gardaí could enter a farmyard and seize vehicles driven there by unaccompanied learners is nonsense.

There is also the question of what is an unaccompanied learner. Learners in some categories of vehicles such as cars have to have a qualified driver accompanying them. For some categories they do not. For example, learner motorcyclists do not have to have a qualified driver with them for reasons which must be obvious.

Learner tractor drivers do not either. Why is that? The people of rural Ireland know, even if those who claim to represent them apparently do not, that tractors have traditionally been built with one seat. Some tractors can take a passenger and the rules state that if a learner tractor driver has a passenger with him or her that person must be a qualified driver. However, we do not require a learner tractor driver to be accompanied by a qualified driver for the obvious reason that in most cases it is not possible. I trust the good sense of the people of rural Ireland to know that and not to be frightened by these absurd and alarmist claims.

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