Marie Moloney (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, for staying on to take this debate. I have discussed this issue informally with the Minister previously. I am pleased to have an opportunity to put my thoughts on the matter on the record of the House this evening. I come from a very rural part of County Kerry. Many young people in the area work in nearby towns that are 15 or 20 miles away. As the Minister knows, it is illegal for a learner driver to drive without being accompanied by a qualified driver. This is causing many problems in parts of rural Ireland where there are no DART, Luas, bus or train services. Young men and women who have no public transport options are finding it difficult to get to work. Many of them have to get their parents, brothers or sisters who are qualified drivers to drive them to work. A great deal of expense is incurred by driving someone 15 miles to work and returning home, before making the same round trip again in the evening.

I did a little research before I came to the House for this debate. I was trying to find some statistics with regard to learner drivers. I learned than in 2013, the most recent year for which statistics are available, some 6% of all fatal collisions involved learner drivers and 94% of such collisions did not involve learner drivers. Similarly, 6% of collisions in which serious injuries were sustained involved learner drivers and 94% of such collisions did not involve learner drivers. It seems from those statistics that we are coming down very hard on learner drivers. I would not come in here to advocate that people should break the law. I ask the Minister to see whether this problem can be addressed in a way that would alleviate the hardship that is being experienced by young people in rural Ireland as a result of this requirement.

I have been trying to think of a way to come around this. I did not want to come in and demand something without sitting down to think about it. Learner drivers have a logbook that is signed every time they take a professional lesson. I suggest that in the case of a learner driver who has spent more than 12 hours under the professional supervision of an approved driving instructor and has applied for a driving test, the current restriction could be confined to the hours between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. That would give people a chance to go to work. For the last 30 years, learner drivers have been driving without being accompanied by qualified drivers. I suggest we could make more use of the approved driving instructors. Maybe they could assess learner drivers as they make progress through their lessons and judge whether they have reached a specific standard. There is a huge waiting list and timescale for a driving lesson. I will wait for the Minister's reply. I will see if he has anything to offer me.