Tom Morrissey (Progressive Democrats)
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I thank the Minister of State for attending to discuss the education of learner drivers and the wider driving community. As we all know, alarming numbers have been and continue to be killed on the roads, despite our best efforts, including the penalty points system, the Garda traffic corps and random breath testing. If we are to devote all our resources to enforcement, on which we are expending much effort, we will not succeed very well. Enforcement is the last stage of the procedure. I would, therefore, like more resources to be directed towards the education of drivers. I refer not only to the education of young drivers but also to the ongoing education of experienced drivers. We should further encourage driving simulation and make it available on a graduated basis. It could be introduced among students in transition year before the leaving certificate. One could offer a proper learning experience to young drivers over many months. As of now they try to cram three, four or five lessons into the one-month period before their driving test. We must extend this timeframe.

If 50% of students failed the leaving certificate examination, we would ask one or two questions. We would either say the standard required was too high or that the preparation was inadequate. However, some 50% of those who undertake the driving test fail on their first attempt. It is a waste of State resources to test drivers who clearly are not experienced enough to do the test. It is crazy that people are stuck in a revolving door trying to pass the test on their first attempt when clearly they are not able to do so. They are clogging up the system.

Simulating driving experience in the classroom is one way of addressing the problem. It would give students an early learning driving experience which would not cost anything by way of insurance. The students' parents would not have to buy cars for them and the initiative would offer a new experience to students and a greater experience of the dangers posed by a motor car on the road. The system would provide motorway and night-time driving experience which is not tested under current conditions. There are many advantages to my proposal. Every consideration should be given to considering it for the transition year curriculum, not just on a pilot basis but widespread across the country. We must do so. I encourage the Minister to consider driver education before spending all the available moneys on driver enforcement.

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I wish to outline the position of the Department of Education and Science on the introduction of driver education to the school curriculum. The Department has no plans to introduce driver education in the form of driving lessons in schools. It is not the norm within the European Union. As the Senator may be aware, a report produced for the NCCA by an expert group which included representatives of the National Safety Council, the Garda Síochána, the Irish Insurance Federation and the Society of the Irish Motor Industry indicated that the research available internationally was inconclusive on the benefits of teaching young people to drive at school. Particular issues highlighted include the gap arising between the time practical skills are learned initially and put into regular practice and the risks arising from having more young people take up driving at an earlier age.

Nonetheless, the Department believes schools have a role to play both in teaching students about road safety issues and in helping them to develop the attitudes necessary to promote safe behaviour on the roads. The social, personal and health education programme which is mandatory in primary schools and at junior cycle level provides a framework under which the generic values and skills that underpin responsible decision-making and respect for the rights and safety of others can be developed and promoted among students. The social, personal and health education programme has a specific personal safety strand which provides a mechanism through which road safety issues for all can be best dealt with in an age-appropriate way.

Specific materials for teaching young people about road safety have also been given to schools. At the start of the 2001-02 school year the National Safety Council, assisted by the Department, distributed copies of Staying Alive — a road safety resource for transition year and the senior cycle — to all second level schools. This pack contained a wide range of learning materials and activities on topics such as personal responsibility and decision-making, environmental issues and risks and rules for road users. A CD-ROM with additional material downloaded from the Internet was included in the pack, with copies of the Rules of the Road. In the preparation of Staying Alive, resource material views were sought from a range of organisations with an interest in the promotion of road safety. The material is supplemented by Garda visits to primary and secondary schools during which the themes of crime, road safety, personal safety and substance abuse are explored as part of the social, personal and health education programme. Some 1,900 school visits were made in 2005. The curricular framework that is in place, in which the importance of road safety can be taught to young people, is supplemented by specific teaching materials and a comprehensive programme of Garda visits to schools. The Department of Education and Science will continue to work with the Road Safety Authority to strengthen further the role of schools in promoting road safety. The authority has commenced work in a number of key areas. It is developing a road safety programme for use in transition year in co-operation with the Department of Education and Science and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment.

I hope my response has been of benefit to Senator Morrissey. While the Department is doing a great deal, it seems it is not prepared to provide for driving lessons in our schools.

Tom Morrissey (Progressive Democrats)
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The Minister of State said lessons of this nature are not the norm across Europe. However, I am certain that what we are experiencing with young drivers in this country is not the norm. We are mistreating young drivers by pushing them into a system whereby they fail their tests at the first attempt and are then charged large amounts of money for insurance because they have failed their tests. This problem is not the responsibility of any single Department — it is the responsibility of several Departments. The Department of Education and Science is failing miserably.