KENNY CALLS ON MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT TO REVIEW DRIVER TESTING PROCEDURES

Posted on August 27, 2012 11:14 AM   |   Permanent Link   

Dublin Bay North Labour TD and Member of the Oireachtas Transport Committee, Sean Kenny, has called on the Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar, to review driver testing procedures. The call comes after an unpublished report by the Road Safety Authority revealed that the pass rate of driving test varies greatly depending on where in the country the test was taken.

"The report apparently says that almost half of all learners are still failing the test. Two-thirds of drivers passed the test in Ennis in 2011, whereas one in three passed in Kilkenny and Rathgar on Dublin's southside, and in Finglas on Dublin's northside.

"I do not accept that failure rates should be higher in Dublin than the rest of the country. I believe that if the same criteria were being used in test centres across the country, the percentage of pass rates would be much more evenly matched.

"The driver test has to be the same right across the board, and it has to be seen to be the same. In that light, I am calling on the Minister for Transport to review the driver testing procedures in view of the large disparities revealed in the report."