Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
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345. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to lift the restrictions on essential driver training driving lessons in April 2021 given that many learners have had to stop in the middle or near the end of their 12 lessons due to Covid-19 which will create further delays for driver tests post-Covid-19. [15439/21]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Under level 5 restrictions, Approved Driving Instructors (ADIs) may continue to provide lessons, but only in such circumstances where the learner in question has already been scheduled a test date. Essential Driver Training (EDT) is thus currently suspended.

While my Department is fully aware of the difficulties that this poses for essential workers who have not yet completed their 12 EDT lessons, I must emphasise that this decision has been taken in line with official public health recommendations that everyone in Ireland work to limit the spread of the virus by staying at home and minimising social contacts in so far as is possible. 

 Officials both in my Department and in the Road Safety Authority are keeping the public health situation under constant review and are working extremely hard to ensure that EDT can resume as soon as it is safe to do so.