Ten Aspects of the New Essential Driver Training in Ireland

(1) Most importantly no Learner Permit Holders whose permit commences after 04/04/2011will be allowed to sit the Irish Driving Test without the signed certificate of Essential Driver Training completion.

What does this mean? Well that all New Learner Drivers commencing after 04/04/11 will be required to undergo the 12 Stage Driving Lesson program as laid out by the Road Safety Authority!

(2) Who will provide the certification to the RSA? The recently introduced Approved Driving Instructor regulations now ensure that any Driving Instructor who gives tuition for reward (or fees) has to have completed and passed the three stage Examination process before gaining Registration as an ADI. The registered ADI will provide certification of EDT completion.

(3) Already in existence is the mandatory 6 months period before sitting a Driving Test. It was with the 12 stage Essential Driver Training Program in mind that this 6 month period was introduced. An application for a Driving Test can be made at any time but the application will be put on hold until the Candidate fulfils the requirements of having held a Learner Permit for 6 months together with the completed EDTcertificate!

(4) The Road Safety Authority (RSA) has indicated that the EDT should be carried out over a period of 6 months to facilitate the learning of correct Driving principles and practises, something that was almost completely absent in the past. These specific skills cannot all be learned and mastered in just a couple of weeks. The 6 month period before being allowed to sit a Driving Test should give all new Learner Permit holders sufficient time to take the necessary Lessons with a Qualified Instructor or ADI and get the required amount of practise with a Sponsor.

(5) It is expected that a new role will be introduced into the whole Learning to Drive system in Ireland…that of a Sponsor who will be someone with Driving Experience and who will both liaise with and take advice from, the Students’ Driving Instructor. The whole idea of this will be to give Learner Drivers co-ordinated practise sessions will specific goals in mind.

(6) Before signing off on each of the 12 Specific Lesson skills, there will need to be ADI instruction followed by practise with the Learner’s Sponsor. To be successful with each Lesson objective there will need to be some study carried out by the Learner Diver!

(7) Only when the procedures for each EDT Lesson have been carried out will the Instructor sign off on that particular Lesson.

(8) Signing off on an EDT Lesson by the ADI will not be certifying that a Student has reached a satisfactory standard for that skill. Any shortcomings will be highlighted on the New Log book.

 (9) The New EDT Log book will record all the details of the 12 specific Skills Lessons and will not be available to anyone other than an RSA Registered Instructor. This will prevent any Rogue Instructors from giving lessons, since without the completed and signed Log Book, a Driving Test cannot take place! Any Learner Driver gaining admission to the new EDT program will be wasting their time if they attempt to take lessons from an Unregistered Instructor since they will not be getting any closer to being able to sit the Driving Test!

(10) Family Cars and those of friends of course will still be permitted for Learner Driver practise providing the correct Insurance Cover is in place. It will be the responsibility of the accompanying ADI to verify that the correct cover is in force when giving Lessons in a car other than the Driving School Car.

The days of being allowed to buy a car and swan around for a few weeks or months and then sit the Driving Test are well and truly over for all new Learner Drivers. It’s a pity that the new regime will not be extended in some form to all the Learner Drivers currently in the system.

As well as these new Essential Driver Training regulations there will be additional Laws coming soon after, that will place strict conditions on Learner Drivers in the two years following passing the Driving Test. These will include stiffer Penalty Points allocations for Road Traffic Offences which will lead to reaching the Automatic Disqualification Level of 12 Penalty Points much sooner.

Since the whole reason for an increased and tougher Learning to Drive program is to improve the competence of each new Driver this in turn will lead to a lessening of Fatalities and Serious Accidents on the road!