Madam, - While I applaud any initiatives to reduce the death toll on our roads, the new measures governing learner drivers must be viewed with some cynicism.
The Government has failed miserably over the years to make testing readily available. Existing rules regarding unaccompanied driving and display of L-plates have not been enforced. It is also too easy to blame drivers on second and subsequent provisional licences for not making better efforts to secure a full licence. The habit of driving on provisional licences has been fostered by the inability of the relevant bodies to provide a proper framework for tuition and testing.
A sensible approach would have been to put this framework in place and fast-track tuition and testing over an agreed period. As it is, we have more laws that will not be enforced consistently. Assistant Commissioner Eddie Rock, head of the Garda Traffic Corps, was reported yesterday as saying that no specific checkpoints would be put in place, "What we want to try and achieve is a voluntary compliance culture," he said. High hopes, indeed. - Yours, etc,
DAVE BRUEN, Greenwood Court, Blunden Drive, Dublin 13.
Madam, - I am very impressed at the speed with which the new regulations concerning provisional drivers are being implemented - to address a situation that has developed over decades, and which came about entirely as a result of administrative incompetence.
Even more impressive is the timing of the announcement, coinciding as it does with the massive pay hikes Bertie Aherne and company have just been awarded. - Yours, etc,
VINCENT O'TOOLE, Leopardstown, Dublin 18.
Madam, - As a current provisional licence holder I must register my disgust at the five days' notice given by the Government regarding the new measures. I have already waited 10 months for a test, and getting a date for a test is as difficult as getting a date with Miss Ireland. Effectively the changes mean that I and many thousands of other people cannot now use our vehicles as we previously have. While in this limbo, we must rely on public transport, pedal power or our legs to complete our daily journeys.
Years of bad and quite frankly corrupt planning has left our country heavily orientated towards the car, and newly disenfranchised "provos" like myself will now have no real alternative mode of transport. Will the extra €38,000 the Taoiseach is to receive for increased responsibility mean he will accept culpability for this debacle, and temporarily rescind the hasty implementation of an otherwise worthy set of regulations? - Yours, etc,
GERARD O'DONOGHUE, Dooradoyle, Co Limerick.
Madam, - I have just read with incredulity that from next Tuesday all provisional licence-holders will have to be accompanied by a passenger who holds a full licence .
Younger members of my family have been forced to move far away from home to purchase houses at greatly inflated prices to satisfy the greed of the housing industry. This has made them dependent on their cars for commuting long distances to Dublin to earn their livelihood.
I am appalled that this Government, having failed to address the whole area of driver-testing, and having allowed the greed of the building industry to run rampant, is once again going to make young people suffer by removing the only means they have of getting to work.
Surely they must be joking. surely they must be capable of enacting legislation better than this and within a better time frame.- Yours, etc,
MARIA HOOLAHAN, Whitecliff, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.