A total of 57 per cent applicants passed their driving test last year and a pass rate of 61 per cent was achieved in repeat tests, the Bulletin of Vehicle and Driver Statistics 2000 shows. The bulletin, published by the Department of the Environment and Local Government, said driving tests conducted in 2000 totalled 162,700 and of these there was an overall pass rate of 57 per cent or 93,000.
At December 31st, 2000, there were two million driving licences current. The figure of 497,002 provisional licences at the end of December was estimated to include over 150,000 unexpired provisional licences held by people who had passed the test in the last two years.
The total number of licensed vehicles at the end of 2000 was 1,682,200, representing an increase of 4.6 per cent on 1999.