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18th October 2023
11:49am BST
"Over the last year, this number of people waiting has increased by 61%, reaching a total of 71,554 eligible individuals, which is up from 44,500, which was unacceptable last October, waiting for a driving test. "And myself and my colleagues in the Rural Independent Group are raising this this morning in the Dáil. "We're going to have a debate on it because we believe that the Government have to do something to recognise [the issue]. "In fairness to the Taoiseach, I actually spoke about this in the Dáil yesterday and he did agree. "And I've had a vision in my head for a lot of time now, and I've been speaking about it in the Dáil, that when students are going to secondary school, they should actually leave secondary school with their Leaving Certificate in one hand and with a full driver's licence in the other."Healy-Rae suggested that students could learn about the theory side of driving in their first three years of secondary school. As for transition year and during the Leaving Cert cycle, he said there "should actually be a motor car in each school" where teens "would look at how to check for oil, check tire pressure and learn about a motor car and during those years then be called for their driving test".
Michael Healy-Rae says teenagers should be taught to drive in schools"The Government has to come to grasp this problem... I mean, the waiting times are enormous. In Tralee for example, you can be waiting 45 weeks to be called for a test. "This is no reflection whatsoever on the people who are doing the tests now, but quite simply there are not enough of them. "The average waiting time itself is something like 30 and a half weeks nationally. "I mean, that's wrong. It's affecting people's lives."Main image via Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie
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