Driver testing and standards body planned

The proposed driver testing and standards authority announced by the Minister for Transport yesterday is not likely to be agreed in its present form, according to the civil service unions involved.

Mr Brennan said in Limerick he intended to overhaul aspects of the driving-testing section of his Department and combine it in a new agency with a driving-standards inspectorate.

The inspectorate would oversee the regulation of driving schools, while the agency would have powers to raise its own revenue, recruit its own staff and operate largely outside the civil service - with its own board of directors and chief executive.

According to the Minister, the proposed agency stems from the need for faster procedures to hire more driving testers, as well as the need for a regulatory body for driving schools.

But Mr Brennan also said he was "disappointed" that in the two years since he announced an end to the "long-term reliance on provisional licences", there were still 120,000 people on the driving-test waiting list, while some 15,000 applicants had failed to turn up for the test.

Under the heads of a Bill to establish the new authority, however, the staff of the authority are described as "non-civil service". This is a particular sticking point for the unions, the Civil and Public Service Union (CPSU), which represents administrative staff in the Ballina, Co Mayo, offices; and IMPACT, which represents the driving testers at 52 centres across the State.

The proposal has also been criticised by Macra na Feirme, which said it will "do nothing to bring down excessive waiting lists" - up to 18 months in some areas.

Mr Blair Horan, general secretary of the CPSU, said: "We simply don't accept that a new agency is necessary and are completely opposed to it being non-civil service staff."

Mr Horan also questioned what measures the new authority could take which the existing civil service could not do. He said the prospect of such a new authority being up and working within a year was "very ambitious".

Mr Horan said under current partnership arrangements between Government and the unions, the hiring of staff was to be greatly eased and speeded up and it was "nonsense that you need a new agency to solve this issue". Other Government Departments managed to handle operational issues without setting up new agencies.

Mr Horan added that civil servants in Mayo were anticipating greater promotional prospects within the county once the Government's decentalisation programme got underway, and they did not want to find themselves outside the service in advance of those opportunities.

Ms Louise O'Donnell, of IMPACT, said the proposed non-civil service status was unacceptable. While IMPACT was not opposed to the new agency as such, she was adamant that it should be staffed by civil servants.

The Fine Gael transport spokesman, Mr Denis Naughten, accused Mr Brennan of showing "unbelievable cheek by criticising learner-drivers for the backlog in driving tests, when he was solely responsible for the massive waiting lists.

Mr Naughten said: "In December 2002 he announced a clampdown on motorists driving on provisional licences. But he did nothing to increase capacity in the Department of Transport to deal with the sudden surge in learner-drivers applying to take the driving test."

It was, Mr Naughten went on, "doing everything in the wrong order.

"None of the the Minister's numerous promises have been delivered, and I doubt very much that this one will be."