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MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT Shane Ross has today announced the commencement of the unaccompanied learner driver provisions of the Road Traffic Amendment Act 2018, known as the ‘Clancy Amendment’.
These new provisions now make it an offence for the owner of a vehicle to knowingly allow an unaccompanied learner or an unlicensed person to drive his or her vehicle.
They will kick in at midnight tonight.
The provisions also extend the power of detention under section 41 of the Road Traffic Act 1994 to allow the Garda Síochána to detain a vehicle being driven, in the Garda’s opinion, by an unaccompanied learner.
Noel Clancy’s wife, Geraldine Clancy (58) and his daughter, Louise (22), and were tragically killed in an accident involving an unaccompanied learner driver in December 2015.
The driver, Susan Gleeson, was subsequently given a three-year suspended sentence.
Since their deaths, Noel Clancy has been campaigning for a change in the law that would make the car owner and driver equally accountable in the law.
Speaking at the launch of the provisions today, Clancy said: “It is three years tomorrow since my wife Geraldine and my daughter Louise were killed by an unaccompanied learner driver.
“It is two years and one month to the date since I stood on the steps of Cork Courthouse and called on Minister Ross to implement legislation that will make it an offence to allow a learner driver to drive a car unaccompanied.
I now look forward to this legislation being enforced by the gardaí. I also look forward to compliance of the law by car owners and learner drivers.
Car owners must now realise that if they give their car to an unaccompanied learner driver then they, unlike in the past, will now be accountable in law.
Long journey
In November 2017, Ross first sought approval for the rule change, however, a number of concerns around a loop-hole were subsequently raised.
The Attorney General’s Office identified a loop-hole in the proposed legislation.
As matters stood, it would have become an offence for the owner of a vehicle to allow an unaccompanied learner driver to drive that vehicle, but not an offence to allow a person who has no driving licence or learner permit to drive the vehicle.
It was then proposed that the government address this by approving the creation of a new offence of a vehicle owner allowing a person who is not the holder of a driving licence or learner permit to drive the vehicle.
The issue was brought to the Oireachtas Transport Committee that month to be debated and has now been rectified.
Also speaking at the event today was Minister Ross.
“I hope this new law will have a serious impact on driving culture in this country. I hope that vehicle owners will act responsibly when allowing learners to drive their vehicles, be those learners sons and daughters, friends, or other family members,” he said.
Unaccompanied learner driving is illegal and it is dangerous. Once and for all we need to stamp out the entirely false notion that once someone has a learner permit they are free to drive as they wish.
“A learner permit is not a driving licence.”
With reporting by Christina Finn
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I suffered from this. Truly, truly painful and debilitating every month. Back in the 80s I went on a course of treatment that was being trialed, a drug called Zolladex. I did it because I was desperate and it was free. I was also very young and naive. It was intrusive and it didn’t work. It strangled one of my ovaries I was warned I may never have children. 30 years later and I watch my daughter suffer from endometriosis. The treatment has not moved on. They could offer my daughter nothing except the “pill”. This could mean girls taking the pill for maybe 20 years in order to avoid pain. I’ve often wondered if men suffered from endometriosis would a cure have been discovered.
Very well written , the worst condition ever as nothing really anyone can do to help. Very little understanding of the condition with the majority believing it’s just a painful period when it can actually mean severe pain 3 weeks out of 4 and constant nausea , bloating , migraines , muscle pain , sciatica , painful bowel movements and emotional implications.
I believe if men had it no way would we not know the cause and surgery would definitely not be the only way to diagnose. Having lived with this no man would just take a painkiller and keep going .
We need to find a cure and make more awareness even in schools as majority starts experiencing symptoms then, as I did age 11 diagnosed age 27
@Lynn: men die younger, men have much higher rate of suicide, men have a much higher rate of homelessness……so what exactly is your point here?, I am sick and tired of listening to women who think they are getting a raw deal, the facts are they are not getting anything of the sort…..men have it worse in many many areas.
@Peter Hughes: He’s right ladies. We shouldn’t be concerned about a better diagnosis rate for a prevalent disease when men have problems too. Those should be addressed first and foremost because, as we all know, multiple things can’t be done at once. We really need to learn our place!
@Peter Hughes: @Peter Hughes: I’m sorry for complaining about my debilitating condition. I’m sorry that I have to go through this EVERY month for 30+ years. I’m sorry men can’t experience the pain, the discomfort, the sanitary issues, the cost of sanitary requirements, the intrusive procedures by numerous doctors and nurses and I’m sorry that women never get to experience homelessness, suicide, rape, absent fathers and man flu.
@2thFairy: Your mind is twisted against men, this has zero to do with men and somehow you managed to point the finger at men…..you need help.
@2thFairy: well said. We are not saying men don’t have problems we are simply saying if they had this condition no way would it have no known cause , no cure , no adequate treatments that don’t cause more side effects and can actually worsen the condition. It is a fact this is a woman’s disease a woman’s problem.
@Peter Hughes: stop acting as if men’s health isn’t taken more seriously. It is. When they suffer from pain, they aren’t shooed away with no help as women often are.
For most of medical history, the male body has been considered the “default” and even trials and tests done to treat women for issues affecting their reproductive organs were done on men. Who, as I’m sure you’re aware, don’t have them.
You can cry and claim to be the victim here but no woman is going to fall for it. She will see it for the blatant attention seeking and issue diverting tripe that it is.
You can deny how reality works all you like but it doesn’t change facts. Men do not have it worse. BTW more women attempt suicide but succeed less often than men.
This is an article about endometriosis. It is a condition that only women suffer from so it makes obvious sense that women will comment here about the pain and suffering it causes.
This condition is rarely bright up as a topic for discussion.
Unfortunately some men think we have no reason to even broach the subject at all.
@2thFairy: some men are so entitled they throw a hissy fit whenever the topic isn’t about them.
Doctors are mostly men so they just dont care my daughter at 23 years of age not married some years ago was told to have a baby and she would be ok by a top consultant in the coombe hospital
@Margaret Kane: I’ve been told that too by multiple doctors, as recent as a few years ago.
@Rei: female doctors mostly as well
I suffered bad with my periods starting in my teens, I didn’t realise that there was something wrong with me. I thought most women had such painful periods but I wasn’t strong enough to deal with them. Other women dismiss it as an excuse or moaning, doctors tell you to take some ibuprofen and a use a hot water bottle. I remember thinking as a 16 year old “how am I supposed to bring a hot water bottle to school with me?”. Instead I opted for those stick on heat patches for your back. Now in my late 20s I’m crippled by it. I waited two years for an app at the Combe after being told a few years previously that I probably had endometriosis at the well woman clinic. My doctors told me the same after a few USS showed nothing wrong. “it’s probably endometriosis, but you’re still young so don’t worry.”
Don’t worry? But there’s no treatment.
When I finally got to my long awaited appointment, I was told “yeah it’s probably endometriosis, get the coil or go on the pill.” and given some NSAIDs. That’s it, there’s nothing else they can do besides surgery, which probably won’t even help much and is likely to leave me infertile due to scarring.
While I feel like my country doesn’t care much about female health problems, the issue is there’s not actually much they can do to help. The treatments don’t exist.
There are so many women out there with the same story and just as many women that go undiagnosed as they think they just have to live with bad period pains. I was in my early twenties when I got the same wishy washy diagnosis and already I had lost an ovary.
I recognised the same condition in my daughter when she was 11 years old and I was shocked and horrified when I took her to the doctor to discover that 20 years later there was absolutely no advancement in treatment.
I chose not to put her through the endless intrusive prodding and operations because she was so young and there was still no cure except the pill.
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