New road users will be required to take driving lessons under changes to the learner driver system.
Learner drivers will have to take twelve hours of compulsory driving lessons and produce a signed log showing that they have undergone supervised practice before they can sit their driving test.
Driving lessons have always been a voluntary undertaking, but now they are to be made compulsory.
A range of measures is being introduced to the learner driver system in an attempt to deal with the high rate of accidents among young and inexperienced motorists. The measures were announced by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) and will be effective from 4 April 2011. Learner drivers must take 12 hours of lessons. From 6 December this year, motorcycle learners will have to undertake 16 hours of lessons. Learners will have to produce evidence of these lessons and supervised driving in the form of a signed log.
Under the new measures, some penalty points for learners will be doubled and learners will also have a lower drink driving limit. There will also be an overhaul of the theory and practical driving tests.
Noel Brett, CEO of the Road Safety Authority, outlines possible sentences for learner drivers prosecuted on dangerous driving charges. These include a nighttime curfew, a prohibition on the carriage of passengers, the compulsory use of speed limiters, and forcing people to take additional driving lessons and to resit the driving test.
The new measures will also apply to newly qualified drivers for the first two years after they have passed the test.
Karl Walsh, Director of the Irish School of Motoring, says that the measures do not go far enough. He points to other European countries where the average number of hours of driving lessons required could be between 25 and 35 hours.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 1 September 2010. The reporter is Samantha Libreri.
