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Events, dear boy, events… well yes, look at the Provisional Driving License fiasco…
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Well, now there’s no surprise. Clicking over to Politics.ie what does one see but a nascent campaign against the latest attempt by the Government to reform the Driving License situation. In a mass mobilisation that has those of us who have struggled long and hard on numerous political issues weeping into our pints the airwaves have been filled, and now the internet is aflame, with the fury of those who have discovered that the de facto and the de jure are two completely different animals. At least from next week.
No longer will our roads be filled with hundreds of thousands of drivers on Provisional Licenses. A new system of permits is coming in. The madness of first, second and third Provisionals is on its way out. Driving test waiting times of an ‘average’ of 18 weeks will cut through those drivers like the proverbial… well something or another. Our roads will be correspondingly safer.
Except I can’t see any of that working in practice. And for once on a semi-political issue it’s not just me, but a whole heap of people. Because this idea, beautifully crafted by the Minster for Transport Noel Dempsey, burnished to a high reflectivity and all ready for implementation has one major flaw.
It can’t possibly work. The hundreds of thousands don’t have even a notionally capable public transport system to take up their numbers. They number amongst them not merely the boy and girl racers, but also fairly stolid folk of varying years who have - for good or bad - taken advantage of a system that the government (and not just this one) found expedient to retain. And this isn’t just the margins, nor is it the taxi drivers (another group where one sort of expedience was replaced by quite another) who faced public antagonism over decades and therefore were politically speaking fair game. This is actually something close to Middle Ireland, and note how Fine Gael have been quick to capitalise upon the discontent.
Discontent sufficient to see the Minister say that:
…following concerns raised about the short period in which some drivers will have to make new arrangements, the garda authorities will take a ‘common sense’ approach for ‘two or three months’.
Which does not quite jibe with what the Gardai were saying today through a spokesperson:
The spokesman said gardaí would not be using their discretion on a case-by-case basis in relation to provisional drivers and would enforce the law as normal when it comes into effect next week.
How interesting (although to be fair the Garda in charge of Traffic Division was in much more emollient form in the Irish Times today). Still, one has to wonder what exactly were the thoughts around the Cabinet table when this particular policy first saw the light of political day. Did no one stop to think that there might be something of a populist backlash, that the time frame of imposition didn’t come close to matching up the waiting times for tests (full disclosure, I’m currently looking at the guts of 45 weeks for a test in Raheny - by the time I get there perhaps I’ll be in my 43rd year, although I cycle everywhere and where I don’t I take a taxi or train). That the myriad of discontents and furies within the society which don’t get an airing at Election time because people don’t want to rock the boat (i.e. see Fianna Fáil out of office) might leap aboard a bandwagon so perfectly formed for our times. After all, when it comes down to it, is not the prevailing narrative in our society one centered around work and working and so on and so forth?
In the Irish Times there is more:
The Minister also displayed his frustration that the enforcement of the regulations for provisional drivers was detracting from the 126 other measures in the road safety strategy.
“I wish to God the rest of the road safety strategy was getting the same attention from the media. The law will come in on Tuesday. The order is signed . . . the enforcement of the law and how that is going to happen.
Well yes. And no. He’s right, but he’s not displaying any great political instinct if he thinks the aspirational will have a greater impact than the everyday. And in a way that’s what is so disappointing about this whole - and to me somewhat theoretical - argument. There are good strong arguments for change. Something has to be done. But, as the joke goes, I wouldn’t start from here.
The most obvious strategy would be to line up all the ducks in a row. And to phase in the changes in stages, say across 18 months. Long enough to give fair warning, short enough to audit progress. A greater spend on public transport linked very openly to these changes (and something that would be applauded by the coalition partners in the Green Party). Roll out the new buses and rolling stock. Rip up the old Provisional Licenses before the cameras and wave the new Permits cheerily. Ensure all get to testing within - say - three months at most. Noel’s your uncle, and away we go.
There, it’s not that difficult is it?
Which makes me wonder why that wasn’t the strategy adopted. Because surely someone around the table must have thought ‘uh-oh’. And perhaps Noel Dempsey is wondering much the same this evening.
(my comment posted on Cedar Lounge)
The rule changes are badly needed - it’s ridiculous to have 400k people on the road who have taken no test (besides maybe a pop-quiz) and who have not necessarily had any formal training whatsoever.
It’s equally ridiculous, however, to spring this legal change on an unsuspecting population with just a few days of notice especially when there is such a long waiting list for tests (22 weeks on average, and that’s optimistic).
To top the ridiculous nature of the whole thing off, it’s bizarre to decide to bring in the new rules but basically say they won’t be properly enforced for an undefined period of time.
The approach should have been to announce the rule changes now and say they’ll be brought in by, say March 2008. At the same time work would be undertaken to bring the test waiting lists below 2 months by then. At that stage the laws would be brought in and enforced properly from day 1 - if you’re a “learner permit’ holder in March 2008 you’d have no excuse at that stage; plenty of notice and a reasonably short waiting list so that you have no reason to be driving on your own with your ‘L’ plates.
Instead everything is backwards and a rule is being made that from the outset will not be enforced, just like the last ones on unaccompanied provisional holders.
While I’ve not read the entire RSA road safety strategy 2007-2012 I do hope there’s plenty of focus on proper rule enforcement in general - having a licence does not make one a good driver by any stretch.
Also, while as Minister for Transport Dempsey has plenty of say in implementation and timing I’m not sure how much credit he can take for what are logical but badly implemented changes to the rules - the RSA are the ones that put them forward and the Government just agreed.
From what I can see Dempsey just agreed to bring them in now before test waiting lists were dealt with, before public transport could deal with any sudden large influx of custom and before the Garda Traffic Corp was properly established to focus purely on compliance and because of this has since told the public not to pay too much attention to the changes anyway, at least not for now.
It’s a laugh a minute with our parliamentarians. Will I be arrested without a companion with a full driving licence next week? How do I get a test and pass it by next week? A guard can’t interpret the law, he implements it.
How do I get to work? Use the public transport system? Can’t.Am in the mid-west and there’s no link between Shannon/ Dublin, Tralee/ Limerick. There’s no commuter rail service around Limerick (so much for the promised feasibility study) and before long the airport will be gone. Has the government lost the plot?
Well Erasmus, sort of agree with you, it’s hard not to see this as a condition of being in government too long. As Adam says this has been done long before the environment is anywhere close to being ready. I’d even say he’s being a bit generous in suggesting March 2008. More like mid 2008.
I see this quote from Dempsey from the story in today’s Irish Times
“It really is people putting their ass on the line, if you’ll excuse the expression.”
Apparently he didn’t realise whose ass was involved.
Oh dear, so he didn’t see this coming…
Drivingtest.ie is down and out for the count, however the cached version of the waiting times nationally gives us a figure of 32.9 weeks, that is for end of 2006 see below. (apologies for the long URL, not even sure it will link through properly if not then type “drivingtest waiting times” into google and link the cached version of the drivingtest.ie site.
http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:SrJeKOKmXJ4J:www.drivingtest.ie/passrates.html+drivingtest+waiting+times&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=ie&client=firefox-a
I’ve also seen other figures from the site of 30.4 weeks which I under is from June. The system is broke, let’s fix the system.
Dan; I checked the site before it went down last night and the last update said there was a 22 week national wait average - only one test centre was under 10 weeks (I think it was Tulamore with 7 weeks) and all others were in the teens or higher.
Not sure how optimistic/pessimistic those figures are but even if 22 weeks average is spot on it’s far too long.
Noticed that I had their PDF cached so I’ve uploaded it here:
http://www.irishelection.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/test.pdf
It’s actually Mullingar, Westmeath that has the 7 week wait - the neighbouring county of Offaly holds the honour for longest waiting list with Birr coming in at 44 weeks.
So evidence the wait time is coming down so why not wait until it is down under say 8 weeks (though I think the target should be 3 weeks) and then implement the changes?
Well that is the question - and why bring in a rule that won’t be properly enforced until the new year anyway?
Didn’t Dempsey do well - no-one’s talking about Aer Lingus and Shannon any more … result!
This latest farce demonstrates once more FF’s contempt for the law. Dempsey and his colleagues are agreed that a law does not neccesarily have to be enforced. Is it legitemate to assume that other laws (those concerning payments to public representatives for instance) are being applied with “common sense”.
A more intelligent approach would have been to permit all second provisional licence holders currently on a waiting list for a test to continue driving unaccompanied.
Gordon
This has needed doing for years. But the waiting lists for driving tests have also needed to improve for many years, and the notice period is astonishingly ignorant of those two issues. I can’t believe that the government is going to top those by bringing in a law that isn’t going to be enforced!