Rules of the road, Irish style, are about to get the shake-up of a lifetime with the introduction of a national driver theory test, obligatory for all provisional licence applicants from this week, although they won't be able to sit the test until June.

At the moment, rules of the road, Irish style, mean you may park anywhere you please (as long as you've got hazard lights flashing); a red light isn't really red if you pass through it at 60 m.p.h. and you think no one has seen you; indicators are strictly optional and are especially superfluous if you swerve into the lane you want to be in quickly enough.

There is one exception to this rule: you must, when driving on a roundabout, always try to confuse as many people as possible by indicating randomly in no particular relation to your direction of travel. Above all, you must never yield to another driver trying to get out at a junction.

In truth, all of these demonstrate the very worst in Irish drivers' behaviour, which is pretty bad, let's face it. It would be funny if it wasn't so serious.

The new theory test, to be introduced by the Government under an EU directive, should at least ensure that new drivers (not existing licence-holders, because they won't have to take it) know their road safety as well as they know their own names. Anyone applying for a provisional licence will be required to sit the test. A book containing almost 750 questions and answers on driving habits, road signs and driving safety will be made available next month for anyone who wants to do their homework.

The test should eventually reduce accidents and road fatalities.

It will be run by a private firm, Prometric Thomson Learning, which also runs driver-theory tests in the UK and Northern Ireland. The questions would-be drivers will have to answer have been set by officials in the Department of the Environment, which started work on them two years ago.

Already, the test has attracted controversy because of its cost. Those applying for a provisional licence will pay £25.20 to sit the test, and the same again for a re-sit if they fail. The fee will go to Prometric, which points out there is no Government subsidy to help defray the cost of running the test. The company will also earn money from the sales of the book (around £16) and CD-rom (around £13 for a single and £25 for a double). If you don't buy the book or the CD-rom you may not pass the test, which consists of 40 questions chosen at random from a bank of nearly 750.

The tests may be sat at 41 centres (eight of them mobile) around the country. Peop e will be allowed 45 minutes to complete the 40 questions using touch-screen technology. The questions pop up on a computer screen and there are generally three or four answers - one of which is correct.

Candidates answer simply by touching the one they think is correct. No computer skills are needed. To pass, candidates must answer correctly at least 35 of the 40 questions. Those who fail will not be allowed see the questions they failed on, but will instead be told to study the broad areas they failed on and try again.

On Thursday, with the help of Prometric, seven drivers, with various levels of experience, volunteered to take a mock Irish Times test. Each, apart from the taxi driver and the bus driver instructor, took less than 15 minutes to complete the 45-minute test.

According to one test volunteer, a man who is perhaps one of the most experienced and qualified drivers in the country, Tom Clancy of Dublin Bus, there are some potential points of confusion between the new theory test and the current rules of the road.

Questions on braking distances on the CD-rom trial-run mix their metaphors, as it were, combining questions phrased in imperial measurements with answers in metric measurements. For example, do you know what the braking distance is on a wet road at 60 m.p.h.? It's 137 yards, according to the rules of the road. But in the new theory test, the answer is 124 metres. In theory, therefore, the question on the new test should ask what the braking distance is on a wet road at 96 km.p.h.

A spokesman for the Department of the Environment admitted there was potential for confusion, but pointed out that Ireland is under an obligation to eventually change all road markings and speed limits to metric - we're all European drivers now.

OTHER questions seem a shade bizarre. We paraphrase here. If driving at night, should you: a) drive faster than you usually would, b) turn up your radio to improve your concentration or, c) drive slowly and carefully? Does even the worst boy/girl racer not instinctively know the answer? Perhaps not, which is why we have such appalling accident statistics.

Test applicants, regardless of whether they wish to drive a tractor or a Toyota, should also be prepared for questions about motorcycles, bicycles, articulated trucks, contra-flow bus lanes and reversing cars with trailers around corners.

Ultimately, and the results of the drivers who kindly volunteered to take this test "blind" bear it out: there's no substitute for good, old-fashioned experience behind the wheel. But as one volunteer, Conor Faughnan of the AA said, a careless driver is still careless - even if they know the theory inside out.

"I think it's a legitimate exercise but it would be easy to overstate its importance as a road-safety initiative. It's nowhere near as important as the penalty points legislation introduced last month, for example, but it's a small, positive step."

Mr Faughnan said the AA regarded the test as "just too expensive", given that it involved simply sitting down in front of a computer screen. If every driver in the State had to take the test (there are 1.3 million of us), the revenue intake would exceed £30 million. "That's a £30 million budget for road safety. I could do a lot more with it than this test."

Incidentally, in the interests of good research, I sat it myself. Thirty-one-year-old female driver (an Opel Astra), five years' full licence, accident and claims free, average annual mileage, thinks, like everyone else, she's a great driver. Score? 33 out of 40.

Failed, with flying colours! It was the braking distances that got me.