Driving in the country - This is an idea worth developing

DESPITE many and varied challenges the late Sylvester Barrett’s 1979 driving licence amnesty remains in the all-time top five of Irish solutions to Irish problems.

At the time driving test centres were swamped with applicants, waiting lists were horrendous so the then environment minister decreed, like a gouty emperor freeing slaves, that anyone on a second or subsequent provisional driving licence need not bother doing a test but could have a full licence anyway.

The innovation did wonders for the statistics on driving test delays but little for the credibility of our road safety programmes.

“Right lads, away ye go but try to keep it handy, as best ye can, on the dual carriageways.”

Though not on the same grand scale the proposal from Green Party deputy leader Mary White, that rural motorists should be allowed to sit an “easier” driving test and obtain restricted licences if they drive only in their locality and at certain speeds, addresses the same issue — a person’s need for independence and the opportunity to use our roads responsibly.

Her suggestion is admirable because it confronts a reality too often hidden or just conveniently ignored. Rural isolation is a real and present threat to the wellbeing of communities and the many, many people living outside areas served regularly by public transport.

Anyone who visited a country pub, if they could find one open, over the Christmas holiday will have seen a greatly changed situation. Because of new drink and driving regulations pubs can no longer fill the role they have done for generations. They were, in many instances, community centres.

No longer, Ireland’s rural pubs are on their last legs and those who depended on them for social interaction, and there were hundreds of thousands who did, must either become hermits or find an alternative.

Ms White’s proposals, though nothing to do with drink-driving regulations, are a practical proposal aimed at balancing the books and ensuring that a person need not be isolated if they behave responsibly.

It is easy to pick holes in the suggestion but it is a real effort to confront a real problem and even if it is amended it is the kernel of a socially mature and validproposal, one that deserves to be supported.