Starting the Long Slow path to improving Road Safety in Ireland.

After years of ignoring the facts, ignoring the statistics and ignoring the comments of Industry Professionals and the general Driving Public, finally the dark ages of Driving in Ireland are to come to an end! Will this be an overnight improvement as the new legislation and regulations get rolled out?

Unfortunately this will not be the case! Since the time from implementation of new motoring laws to the time when we see some steady improvements will always be measured in months, if not years! Still, with the advent of mandatory training for Motorcyclists and hopefully Learner Car Drivers around the corner we can look forward to a substantial reduction in road fatalities in a year or two.

Some over enthusiastic Politicians have had a habit of blaming the poor driving standards of the populace on the poor standards of Driving Schools and the fact that Driving Instructors are not regulated currently. This also is due to come to an end with the introduction of the discussion document on Driving School Registration which was issued a couple of weeks ago and which heralds the setting up of the New Register from July 2007.

 The New Driving Instructor Register will be administered by a separate Department within the newly established Road Safety Authority. The monitoring of Instructor tuition standards will be an annual affair and the cost of both qualifying in the first place and maintaining one’s registration secondly, will hopefully remove both part- timers and cowboys from the Profession

After this date all Driving Instructors will be required to be members of the Register following the successful passing of three in-depth examinations which will be modelled on standards currently pertaining throughout Europe.

Once the new register is in place and functioning we could then expect to see a steady improvement in the standards of all new drivers coming onto the road for the first time and this in due course will have a very beneficial effect on the road accident figures that we are being exposed to currently and which are not only horrific but unacceptable.