Test 'no shows' cost State €1m

Last year 23,000 driving test appointments were cancelled too late to be given to another provisional driver, costing the Exchequer over €1 million, new figures reveal.

They also show that one-third of all driving tests are cancelled every week. Labour's transport spokeswoman Roisín Shortall, who obtained the figures, said this proves that huge numbers of the 404,000 provisional drivers are simply avoiding the test.

"The Department of Transport tells us that up to 1,500 of the 4,500 tests scheduled each week can be cancelled, yet in 23,000 cases last year a test was cancelled without a substitute being found.

"These so-called 'no-shows' cost the state €1 million in 2005 in lost tests, and there are additional administrative costs in rescheduling tests," she said.

This afternoon Labour will unveil proposals to reform the driving test system, and to cut waiting lists of up to 60 weeks for a test.

Ms Shortall said: "The current licensing laws allow a driver on a second or later provisional licence to renew his/her provisional licence for one year, if there is proof of a test appointment."

A key part of the Labour proposals would end this option, with no provisional licence holder allowed to renew their licence without having taken a test first. "This would eliminate the incentive to apply and cancel," she added.

The Irish Times has also learnt that the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) is investigating the wide variances in pass rates between the 49 driving test centres. The report is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Tipperary scored lowest, with a pass rate of just 43 per cent last year, while Shannon had the highest pass rate at 68 per cent.

This is the second time the C&AG has examined this issue.

In a 1999 report into the driving testing service, John Purcell recommended immediate steps be taken to end the situation "where for a significant proportion of candidates, the test outcome appears to depend on the location of the test and who is doing the testing".

Mr Purcell said the range for passing the driving test should be in the region of 57 to 60 per cent, whereas in reality the "actual pass rates reveal a wide variation".

In 2005 the variation was 25 per cent.

Mr Purcell also identified a clear geographical split - which continues to this day. Every test centre in the west had a pass rate higher than the average of 55.9 per cent last year.

Meanwhile, every driving test centre in Leinster - with the exception of Mullingar - was below the average. To provisional drivers anxious to pass their tests, the message is clear - go west.

Mr Purcell said ensuring "uniformity across all test centres" was an important element of the Government's responsibilities for driver training.

Ms Shortall said the Government had failed to address the variances in driving test pass rates since the C&AG's report.

She called on the Road Safety Authority to research the root causes of the variances to "establish if different testing standards are being applied, if test routes are equally challenging or indeed if particular driver experience or tuition level is contributing to higher driving standards in certain areas".

She also noted that while supervisory testers carried out 2,000 examinations of driver testers in 1999, this had more than halved to 825 last year, less than half of 1 per cent of all driving tests.

"This is completely inadequate to monitor test standards," she said.

Figures released to Ms Shortall in a parliamentary question also show there are 27,054 provisional drivers on their fifth or subsequent licence, meaning they have been driving for at least eight years without passing a test. A further 30,573 provisional drivers are on their fourth provisional licence, and 42,244 are on their third.

Perhaps frustrated by the tardiness of younger people to pass the test, the figures also show 163 drivers aged 85 and over have decided to learn to drive, and are now on their first provisional.