Driving tests - Backlog and failure rate is an outrage

ONE-SIXTH of all drivers on the road are driving on provisional driving licences.

There are some 135,000 drivers waiting to take a driving test, which means that almost 270,000 are driving having either failed a test, or have not yet bothered to apply to take a test.

The problem is exacerbated by a high failure rate, as 48.5% initially fail the test the first time.

This amounts to almost one out of every two. On top of this 43% fail the test at a subsequent attempt, which perpetuates the backlog.

In June, Minister for Transport Martin Cullen promised to eliminate the backlog by the middle of next year.

However, yesterday the Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Pat the Cope Gallagher, was merely promising to have the waiting time for driving tests down to six weeks within 18 months to two years.

If past promises are anything to go by, nobody should place much credence in the assurance, especially when the Martin Cullen promised to resolve the backlog within a year only a couple of months earlier.

It is absurd to blame the increasing backlog on those who do not show up for tests. That is not a new phenomenon.

The minister should have factored it into his calculations. His dismal ministerial record continues. In fairness, it should be emphasised that he inherited the problems, but he seems to be making little headway.

The union claims that 130 driving test instructors conducted 25,000 extra tests in the first half of 2006 as part of a determined effort to reduce the backlog. By the end of the year there will be 11 extra testers, and it is anticipated that some 200,000 learner drivers will have been tested in 2006. But 97,000 of those people will not pass their tests, if the current failure rate persists.

When those are added to the 204,000 drivers who will not be tested in 2006, it will bring next year’s total number of drivers not fully licenced to over 300,000, and some 50,000 new applicants are likely to be added.

As a result, the overall gain for the year will only be around 50,000.

At that rate, the problem will not be resolved within the lifetime of this Government, or the next government either, because it would take 8 years to wipe out the backlog.

The Government is just passing on the problem, which has been around for decades.

When faced with a backlog of 160,000 drivers on provisional licences in 1979, the Government allowed all holders of a current provisional licence who had previously had another provisional licence to purchase a licence without passing the test, even though many of them had already failed the test — some more than once.

At that time it was estimated that some 15,000 to 20,000 drivers managed to purchase driving licences without passing the test.

More than a quarter of a century on, the problem is worse than ever. This is another glaring example of government inefficiency and bungling bureaucracy. It is an utter outrage, because the lives of all road users are being endangered.