Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
LEARNER DRIVERS COULD soon be waiting more than a year to sit their driving test due to a shortage of testers, Fórsa is warning.
The trade union, which represents driving testers, say changes to the Road Traffic Act, which will introduce stricter penalties for learner drivers who drive without an accompanying fully licenced driver, could cause average waiting time to spiral to as long as 55 weeks.
The average waiting time is currently 14 weeks.
The legislation will introduce fines of up to €2,000, or six months imprisonment, for motorists who allow their vehicles to be used by unaccompanied learner drivers. It will also allow for the detention of vehicles illegally driven by learner drivers.
“Fórsa supports the measures in the Road Traffic Bill because they will improve road safety,” the union’s assistant general secretary, Ashley Connolly, said.
But we need to quickly put the necessary measures in place to prevent a huge backlog of driving tests and a potential trebling of waiting times.
There are currently 102 driving testers, a 20% drop on the amount of assessors in 2007.
The union is calling for that number to be doubled through the establishment of a panel of approximately 100 testers that can be deployed where needed.
It has reached an agreement with the Road Safety Authority on the creation of the panel and it has called on the Department of Transport to sanction the plan.
Connolly said Fórsa and the RSA have also discussed other ways of reducing waiting times including looking at additional flexibility measures.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
great idea I think
Disg#sting idea…Patel has her claws all over this…hopefully it will.never fly.
@Donal O’Carroll: For economic migrants who are crossing the channel, this is a smart policy because it will discourage them.
Australia has a similar policy and numbers have reduced dramatically.
UK could not have done this while they were in the EU.
@Roger Bond: That last point ought to scare the living daylights out of ordinary Brits. Supermax prisons and a new death penalty anyone?
Expensive and cruel…a failed policy..no thanks
@Roger Bond: yes they could. Just like they could take control of their borders all along
He can say what he wants but it trading in humans. It’s a throughly vile system the British have decided on. But hey it keeps the racists happy, getting brexit done etc etc
@Keith Keith: It’s far from being vile.
Ramming people onto rubber dinghies and sending them across one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, having first charged them extortionate sums of money for the priviledge is worse than vile.
Britain has no problem with welcoming migrants or refugees who come through the correct channels. These dinghy folk are illegal immigrants, and mostly come from the African continent to start with.
@Ally Collyer: The Brits condemned Rwanda 9 months ago about their human rights record.
@Tommy Berry: does that make it, good idea-bad location or bad bad.
I think its a ballsy idea to try and stop economic migration
@Garreth mc mahon: It’s horrendous. Racists don’t care though.
@Tommy Berry: It’s nowt to do with race! It’s the fact that they’re illegal migrants.
Look up the word ILLEGAL.
Now tell me here it says anywhere about race.
They’re illegal economic migrants, and the UK has had enough of them.
We haven’t the room for them. Perhaps they’d be better off here in Ireland?
Yes of course the Rwandan gov has a great record of being just. Ask Paul Rusesabagina (see Hotel Rwanda) who was kidnapped from Dubai and is now languishing in a Rwandan jail. I’d say the Brit gov liked their style.
This set up does not look good no matter how they package it.
@andrew: Yes it does not look like an attractive option for would be channel crossers so it will be effective.
Of course it is – stop with the gaslighting
Its pretty poor and would make you wonder if the Brits ever learned from their many times through history sending people to far flung places simply because they didn’t like the look of them.
@Paul Cunningham: What are you blethering on about, man? Britain used to send its convicts to Australia. I wasn’t aware we sent them anywhere else in the world, and it was nothing to do with whether or not we did or not like the look of them!
@Ally Collyer: wonder how comes there are massive South Asian communities in Fiji,Mauritius, South Africa, Kenya,etc
Would you like to enlighten us.Thanks
have your say