The Government's decision to introduce a driving theory test for new applicants for provisional licences is a welcome step towards higher standards, despite the extraordinary failure to extend the scheme to the 345,000 holders of existing licences. It should help deal with the comparatively disgraceful state of safety on Ireland's roads.
The test covers the rules of the road, risk perception, awareness of hazards and good driving behaviour. It will use a well-designed and widely applied system, and requires a high mark to pass, with a significant financial fee by applicants. In principle, it is a good thing that such knowledge will be more widely disseminated, although the relationship between that and safer behaviour on the roads is problematic, since enforcement of the existing rules are often virtually non-existent. Provisional licence holders must display an L plate and may not use motorways. But one can look almost in vain through court records for prosecutions on these counts.
The Minister of State for the Environment, Mr Robert Molloy, has made the bizarre decision that the existing 345,000 holders of provisional licences will not have to take the driving theory test if they have to renew them. He defended their exclusion by saying they would "clog up the system". Considering that so many of the drivers responsible for fatal and serious traffic accidents, are to be found among their number, this is a lame excuse indeed. The new scheme will cost a mere £3 million, based on a public-private partnership. Surely, it would be possible to spend more money on it so as to include the stream of reapplications, at least on a graduated basis.
This scheme is an important, but limited, step on the way to more effective regulation of our traffic safety systems. Later this year, it is expected that the new computerised systems being prepared and upgraded by the Departments of the Environment and Local Government will begin to come on line. They will enable a more speedy implementation of the Government's Road Safety Strategy. It will also enable the Government to implement measures contained in the Road Traffic Bill. It includes much stiffer fines for motoring offences and, most radically, will enable a penalty points system to be introduced which will aggregate specified offences, culminating in forfeiture of a driving licence. Ireland is going through a major change in patterns of transport, in line with the rapid pace of economic growth. There is much room for argument about the optimum balance between private and public transport, rail and road, car and bicycle, within this transformation. Existing policy is geared to optimise the number of cars on our roads. Unfortunately regulation has been far too slow in keeping up with that trend. Congestion, dangerous driving and levels of fatality and serious accidents up to twice that of our nearest neighbours, have brought this fact home. It is a pity that the opportunity to deal more radically with this backlog has not been seized on this occasion.