Scores of emergency vehicles break speed and traffic regulations every day on emergency or "blue light" duties, but in many cases their drivers have not had any advanced training.
There is no mandatory advanced driver training programme for ambulance or fire tender drivers - and, although in theory all Garda patrol car drivers should get special training, in practice a significant number have not completed the course.
The duration of the Garda driver course has been halved in recent years, and among gardaí themselves there is unease about allowing members to drive official vehicles without any other training than that with which they gained their ordinary driving licences.
In the case of the Garda, only drivers who have passed through a course at either Templemore or the Phoenix Park depot are, in theory, allowed to respond to "39" emergency calls - known as "39 call outs.
However, Garda vehicles can respond to these calls without the driver having completed the courses under what is known as "Chief Superindendent's Permission".
This was initiated during the 1970s when an increasing need for Garda cover in Border areas at the time required flexible mobility. It later became a broader practice, particularly in the Dublin Metropolitan Area.
"Garda vehicles could be lying idle at stations because qualified drivers attached to those units might be on holidays or not rostered for duty," a Garda spokesperson told The Irish Times.
Officially these drivers are not supposed to answer emergency calls.
"The situation puts drivers in personal danger," says one former garda driver. "They can come from their own personal car, maybe a 1-litre Micra, to a high-powered patrol car without any training in how to handle it."
The Garda Representative Association (GRA) says that untrained drivers operating official vehicles, in "extremely hazardous" conditions, are "a real source of concern".
Fine Gael justice spokesperson Mr John Deasy says: "The The gardaí in question face serious threats on the roads, including high-speed chases and apprehending joyriders, as well as coping with ordinary driving hazards."
However, Mr Martin Reilly, the sergeant in charge of Garda driver training in the Phoenix Park Depot, says that resources now available mean that some 500 gardai are trained annually in basic patrol driving, and the level of operating under "chief's permission" has decreased markedly.
Most of the larger Garda stations need up to 12 drivers to meet shift requirements of 24-hour rostering. The 1,900 garda vehicles comprise almost 1,400 cars, over 230 motorcycles and 219 vans. There are also minibuses, lorries and a few off-road vehicles.
Training on the Garda 'car course' is given by instructors who have trained to standards established by British police forces, notably those of the London Metropolitan Police Driving School at Hendon.
Similar centres include Hutton Hall in Lancashire and the Scottish Police College at Tulliallan in Scotland.
The last Garda instructor to go to Hendon did so in 1984, and the last instructor to be trained at any of the main British colleges did so in 1987. Since then, the Garda instructors have trained other instructors here. None of those at the Dublin facility have been sent for external training for many years.
In Britain, all police driver instruction is divided into three modules: 'Basic' for simple patrol duties; 'Standard' for emergency response and night driving; and 'Advanced' for pursuit and high speed response.
The total instruction time is 10 weeks. Advanced motorcycle training can take a total of 17 weeks.
In Ireland the patrol car course will give just two weeks' instruction for a driver, half of the time given some years ago.
However, Sgt Reilly says that since participants normally have full driving licences already, the duration is adequate for 'normal' patrol driving duties. "If they are assigned to special units, such as the Traffic Division or Emergency Response Unit, or for driving Government ministers, they get further training."
Garda motorcycle riders are trained on a very stringent curriculum before they qualify for patrol, and around 500 have been trained over the last five years.
The Phoenix Park school also has responsibility for training the bicycle Garda corps now being introduced, based on a US training model.
Training a driver means having to replace the garda taken off normal duties during the process. Applicants for the car or motorcycle courses require the permission of superiors, and delays of several years have been reported. Sgt Reilly says the delay is now considerably reduced.
With other 'blue light' operators, it is only recently that any organised attempt has been made to provide drivers with special training. And apart from the Garda, such training is not mandatory.
Dublin Fire Brigade has sent drivers to Britain for special training during the last two years, and these are now available as instructors for other brigades.
Local fire services had their driver-mechanics get a HGV licence and then gave them 'in-house' tuition in how to drive under blue lights.
Most ambulance drivers in Ireland do not receive advanced training, participants at a conference last autumn were told. However, in the Eastern Region Health Board area drivers are currently undergoing a programme of advanced driving tuition.
"The feedback has been very good," says Pat McCarner, Chief Ambulance Officer in the Eastern Region area. "Our drivers say they have eliminated bad driving habits, have a heightened awareness of what's going on around them, and have learned more about strategic driving such as correct cornering positions and overall vehicle control."
Meanwhile, one of those involved in setting up a standardised driving tuition curriculum for the British police forces in the early 1990s believes a similar programme should be devised for other emergency response drivers.
Former police driving instructor Peter Richardson says that it should then be mandatory for such drivers before they are deemed qualified to drive 'under blue lights'.
No fewer than 14 different organisations or agencies in Britain are permitted to use blue lights. Most can do so without any mandatory training.
He said 'misconceptions' about legal responsibilities and exemptions need to be addressed, quoting as example the fact that a voluntary ambulance driver can avail of the traffic regulation exemptions provided in law 'if the circumstances warrant it'. "But that driver may not have received the requisite training, or any training."