Dazed and confused: Learner drivers criticise changes

Jane Hayes is confused. The University College Cork student has a second provisional licence and needs her car to get from her home in Blackrock, Cork to the university where she is studying for a degree in Government.

On hearing the rules for second provisional licence-holders being accompanied were to be changed, she had planned to remove the L-plates on her car next Tuesday.

But since Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey moved to clarify how the rule will be enforced she is not sure what approach to take.

"It's totally confusing. I might be doing something illegal just by driving to college next Tuesday. Or I might not. I just don't know whether to risk it." The 20-year-old has not yet sat a driving test as she started driving only over the summer.

"I had a licence but didn't have time when I was doing the Leaving Cert to learn. I got the car because it takes two hours using buses to get to college.

"It's only 20 minutes in the car. I'd feel like a fool sitting on a bus for two hours for no reason when I could drive."

She said she cannot be accompanied because both her parents work.

She believes it was not practical to introduce such a measure with only one day's notice. "Obviously if there was a deadline, maybe three or six months away, I would have at least attempted the test. If I could get one."

Alan O'Brien believes the new restrictions on provisional drivers mean they are being penalised for the Government's shortcomings.

"It's not our fault that the driving test is 51 weeks.

"To wake up on a Friday and be told you cannot legally drive to work on a Tuesday is just mad, it caused huge panic. There is no public transport to Sandyford from Wicklow."

Alan (23) lives near Wicklow town and has to travel each day to Sandyford Industrial Estate where he works in a financial services firm. Alan failed his first driving test and has waited 40 weeks already for his second. "I waited a year for my first test, and failed. I'm waiting for a second."

"I understand they [ the RSA] are between a rock and a hard place and that they have to tackle road deaths, but if they are making this a requirement they should give people an opportunity to comply."

Alan also admitted that he does not display L-plates "because I have to use the M50 and they are always watching" and is aware that he faces penalties for not doing so.

"These latest amendments to the provisional licence laws directly threatens my future prospects and it leaves me with no obvious transport."