Testing times: big difference in driving test pass rates

THE driving test pass rate differs considerably from one town to another and some drivers have to wait four times longer to sit the exam, depending on where they apply.

Figures available from the Department of Transport suggest that either some towns are producing far better drivers, or the testers in certain centres are a lot more lenient.

A person sitting their test in Shannon, Co Clare, has a 68% chance of getting a full licence that day, while somebody who sits the exam in Tipperary town will pass 43% of the time.

And if anything, the situation is getting worse. Compared with 2003, Shannon has consolidated its position as the easiest location to sit the driving test, up 2%.

Conversely, Tipperary town has got more difficult, from a pass rate of 47%, and it remains at the bottom of the 49-centre league table.

Despite Fine Gael demanding reform of the system across the country in 2004, success rates have largely remained static.

There has been an average change of 2% in the pass rate nationally and only Loughrea, Carrick-on- Shannon and Cavan have been passing noticeably more people (5%).

Although applicants can pick any centre in the country to sit their test, the easier towns are not being swamped by those desperate to ditch their provisional licence and drive legitimately on motorways.

Skibbereen passes 60% of driving test hopefuls and in July it had the lowest waiting time in the country at 13 weeks.

Wicklow, Tallaght and Tipperary each manage a one-year waiting list and still fail more than half of the people who sit the test there.

Fine Gael Transport spokesperson Olivia Mitchell says that the problem surrounding driving tests is still the same as it was two years ago and it needs to undergo a “complete overhaul”.

She said: “There hasn’t been any significant increase in the number of testers that are out there and I know of cases where one or two (testers) are swapped around just to cope.

“It is a reflection of a whole lot of things.... like the driving instructor system because there is still no new register of driving test instructors.

“There needs to be transparency in the testing system and comprehensive and rigorous training for testers and instructors.”

A spokeswoman for the Department of Transport said that the variation between test centres is something that Minister Martin Cullen has asked the Road Safety Authority to look at during the ongoing review of whole licencing system.