Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)

As all previous speakers said, the current waiting times for driving tests are unacceptably long. This is having a very real impact on the lives of young people. I will not repeat what other Senators have said. Young people in rural constituencies like mine are unable to leave home, whether to go to college or work, because of the scarcity of town centre housing and its cost.The expansion of Local Link services has helped immensely but the reality is that most people in rural Ireland still need a car to get around. Under the current system, people are left waiting extensive periods for a test and frequently fail for no reason other than the way it is structured. We are all in favour of a rigorous testing regime that only certifies safe drivers to drive, but the situation seems to have got out of hand with delays to test times leading to fails, which leads to more pressure on retests, resulting in longer wait times.

The Minister of State said he is looking for suggestions. I have a suggestion for him from a very well-regarded instructor in Sligo who gave me his analysis of what is wrong in the system and, more importantly, how to fix it. We are all aware that getting the provisional licence is a big stage in a young person's life and most people are keen to get on with learning to drive as soon as they get their provisional licence. Consequently, it is not unusual for the learner to have completed the 12 essential driving lessons within the first four months of holding the provisional licence, at which point they are at peak preparedness to pass the test. However, because the first-time learner permit holder cannot sit the driving test until he or she has held the provisional driver licence for six months, this peak then comes at exactly the wrong time. With the current waiting lists of anywhere between five to ten months between applying for the test and getting the test date, most people cannot afford to keep on paying for weekly lessons for an additional six to 12 months. They lose preparedness and subsequently fail their test. If we trust driver instructors to instruct, we should also be prepared to trust them to assess a candidate's ability and suitability to take a test. The first proposal is to replace the mandatory six-month wait with a certification that the candidate is ready to take the test or allow the learner driver to apply for the test as soon as they get the provisional licence with a fixed date of six to 12 months into the future, as one would book the NCT online. This could include payment of a non-refundable fee to ensure the learner is committed to the date. In no way does it impact on the necessity of the learner to complete the minimum of 12 lessons. This would allow the learner and the instructor to plan and to structure a learning programme that optimises the learner's chance of passing without a large gap in the frequency of lessons and without them having to do a more intensive programme of lessons. If we do not take seriously the need to change the format, our waiting will only get longer. Because of this break in the relationship between the instructor and the learner, just when it is needed and which will help to make our roads more safe, underprepared students are sitting tests without any adequate pretest preparation. The instructor said to me that he is told regularly "I just need a lesson to refresh myself before the test" because the learner may not have had a lesson for six to 12 months. They are a mile off being ready for the test and this cannot be resolved within a week or two.

Our form system, based on this instructor's detailed idea, which I will send into the Minister of State's Department, allows the pupil to plan for a learning schedule within a fixed window of time. As they learn, their approved driving instructor will gauge how are they progressing and how many lessons each learner is likely to need. Most instructors know their students well enough and, after four to six weeks, would be able to judge their ability. Some people take to driving more naturally than others but I certainly was not one of those people, I failed my test four times. We should trust driving instructors to judge a learner's progress and help young people to achieve what is a major and essential to life skill.