New measures to regulate driving instruction

Unregistered driving instructors could face fines of up to €1,500 and or six months in prison under new proposals to regulate the driving instruction industry.

The measures - contained in a consultation document released by the Department of Transport today - envisage a new Approved Driving Instructors (ADI) body that would be overseen by the Road Safety Authority.

The registration process would require the applicant instructor to pass tests in driver competency and theory as well as one to evaluate their suitability to deliver instruction.

Once registered, an ADI member would be check-tested periodically to ensure that the prescribed standard is maintained.

The Department of Transport proposes to start the registration process from July of next year. All existing driving instructors would be required to have completed the process by July 2008.

Minister for Transport Martin Cullen said: "At present there is no formalised system of setting and monitoring standards for driving instruction."

"It is not a requirement for a person who wants to become a driving instructor to have a minimum standard of driving competence or a proven ability to give instruction in order to become a driving instructor," he said.

"It is in the interest of both driving instructors, learner drivers and the wider public that this should be changed," he said.

The measures also contained a proposed compulsory basic training requirement for motorcyclists.

Mr Cullen said motorcyclists currently represented about 2 per cent of road traffic but made up 12 per cent of road fatalities. The system whereby the only requirement for taking to the road on a motorbike was a helmet had to be changed, he said.

But he failed to give a date for when compulsory basic training for car drivers would be introduced.