By the time the general election comes around, this Government will have abdicated direct responsibility for driving tests, the regulation of driving instructors and for a backlog involving 404,607 provisional licence-holders.
Having failed to deal with a steadily worsening situation in recent years, Minister for Transport Martin Cullen will transfer power for these and other matters to a new Road Safety Authority (RSA) in the autumn. It might be called political cowardice. It certainly involves sharp political practice, with the RSA being cast in the role of future whipping boy.
That said, the establishment of the RSA can only be an improvement on what has gone before. The failures of the Department of Transport have been truly cataclysmic. Even as it prepares to hand over road-safety functions to the new authority, the Department's "rules of the road" booklet has not been reprinted in years. Distance is given in miles rather than in kilometres. That is the kind of Government neglect and penny-pinching the RSA will have to overcome if it is to become effective.
An absence of accountability and a reluctance to accept change lies at the heart of the problem. In spite of year-long waiting lists for driving tests in some areas, on top of an established base of provisional licence-holders, the trade union Impact fiercely resisted the employment of a private company to cope with the situation. Instead, it advocated the introduction of overtime and the retraining of surplus civil servants. Public outrage helped to change that situation. Private driving tests are likely to be introduced in October.
Minister of State for Transport Pat "The Cope" Gallagher has estimated that, even with outside involvement, it may take up to two years to reduce the average waiting time to six weeks. Only at that stage will the RSA be in a position to address the bizarre and unacceptable situation whereby motorists who fail their tests are permitted to get into their cars and drive away.
Before the last general election, there were 325,000 provisional licence-holders in this State. Now, there are almost 80,000 more. And the number is rising. Many young people awaiting tests are being put to considerable expense because of high insurance costs. And they may lose employment because they do not have "full" licences. Road-safety considerations are also involved. The Government has presided over this administrative shambles. Transferring responsibility to a Road Safety Authority may be the smart political option. But it does not absolve ministers of blame.