Road safety group demands end to learner permit loophole and tougher enforcement on disqualified drivers

It emerged in April that more than 6,000 people failed to show up for their driving test last year but were allowed to renew their learner permit by the RSA and stay on the road.

Parc founder Susan Gray, whose husband died in a road tragedy, said this has been an issue the group has campaigned on for 11 years. Drivers are currently able to repeatedly renew their learner permits by simply applying for a driving test, but not sitting it.

She said the current system lends itself to learners simply renewing their permit and disqualified drivers remaining on the road without getting caught.

“The penalty for driving unaccompanied has gone up to €160. So they’re paying €160, they get two penalty points and still they’re on the road. This problem started with the RSA. They have made learners realise ‘ah sure I can keep rolling over my learner permit’.

“The RSA say it’s all to do with the guards, they need to go out and enforce it. No. The RSA need to make the gardaís job a lot easier and inform them when somebody’s disqualified. They don’t inform them automatically.”

Mrs Gray has asked Government on behalf of Parc when this loophole will be closed and make it mandatory for learners to sit a driving test in order to obtain a subsequent permit.

Junior Minister Jack Chambers announced at the end of last year he planned to address the issue in mid 2024.

The issue of non-surrender of licences and permits has also been raised by Parc for many years. Under the current system, just 5pc of those disqualified have returned their licence or learners permit to the RSA as required. Parc calls for what it says is the farcical current system to be scrapped whereby a disqualified driver is asked to post back their licence or permit to the RSA PO Box in Cork.

Also last year, Mr Chambers issued a reply to then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar after PARC reported that the system for mutual recognition of disqualified drivers between Ireland and the UK was not working in the republic and suggested the Govt adopt the system used in the UK system and Parc is awaiting an update on the issue.

Mrs Gray was speaking alongside fellow road safety campaigner Noel Clancy at the launch of the 2024 edition of Finding Your Way, a guide for families of victims of fatal or serious road traffic collisions. This guide is funded by bereaved families.

Mr Clancy’s wife Geraldine and daughter Louise were killed in a December 2015 collision involving an unaccompanied learner driver.

He said no-shows at driving tests are contributing to the long wait times for test slots.

“A contributory problem to the delay in driving tests is the fact so many slots are wasted every day by people who don’t turn up and have no intention of turning up.”

The RSA received more than €500,000 last year from no-shows Mrs Gray added, based on the number of people who failed to attend their test and the €85 non-refundable fee.

The RSA has said it does not profit from the no-show fees as testers are still working during that time and still entitled to payment.

She also spoke about a recent report in The Irish Times revealing just one in 10,000 disqualified drivers surrender their licence after being ordered to do so by the courts.

She has raised a number of issues with the Ministerial Road Safety Committee on behalf of Parc, including when consolidated road traffic legislation will be presented to the Dáil and plans for gardaí to be granted complete roadside access to drivers licence information on the National Driver File.