Madam, - Why is it that, in the debate about learner drivers, no one is willing to question the usefulness of the driving test in its current form? The fact that it's perfectly normal for adults with foreign licences and perfect driving records to fail the test ought to raise suspicions about what exactly is being tested and what value the test actually has as a measurement of driver safety.
More importantly, the young men who die on country roads almost every night do so not because they lack basic skills or knowledge of the rules of the road, but because they suffer from overconfidence, peer pressure and delusions of immortality - none of which will be visible to even the most diligent tester or will be changed by the most violent television commercial.
What is needed here is not just the long-overdue enforcement of existing safety laws by the Garda, but a shift towards intolerance in public attitudes towards reckless young drivers and a reform of the driving test so that it focuses on fundamentals.
Many commentators poke fun at the US driver licensing system; yet the US doesn't have a noticeably higher accident rate but instead combines effective enforcement of traffic laws with driving tests that are highly embarrassing to fail. This ought to give Irish legislators pause for thought. - Yours, etc,
DAVID ROLFE, Leinster Road, Rathmines, Dublin 6.