IT’S A RITE of passage for many Irish teenagers and young adults – but the complexion of the Irish driving test is shortly to change forever.

The Road Safety Authority is phasing out the classic feedback form for people sitting their driving test – replacing the form filled out by examiners where they note a driver’s faults during their test.

Instead, inspectors will fill out the form on tablet computers – with candidates then being given oral feedback, instead of the sheet that shows the exact faults they accumulated on their test.

The changes mean candidates won’t be given the usual sheet, with their faults manually written onto it – but will instead be sent a summary of their faults through email or post, depending on how they booked their test in the first place.

The tablets have begun use in the last few weeks and are in the process of being rolled out across the country.

An RSA spokeswoman said the new system was part of efficiency reforms being introduced under the original Croke Park pay deal, and saved examiners the bother of having to manually input a candidate’s result onto the RSA’s data systems after the test.

She said the procedures would reduce the administrative workload, and also enable candidates to get better customer service if they needed to query the outcome of their test shortly after taking it.

The system also means that the RSA can compile immediate feedback on the results issued by any examiner, and determine whether individual examiners are unusually strict or lax on certain aspects of a candidate’s driving.

Members of the IMPACT union sought a Labour Court ruling on the introduction of the electronic testing system, and other proposed reforms of the driving test system.

The Labour Court recommended that workers allow the new system to be adopted.

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