Plans to regulate driving schools are being opposed by driving instructors who want their existing training taken into account when registering with a new statutory Approved Driving Instructor (ADI) register. The new register, run by the Road Safety Authority (RSA), will end the decade-long anomaly that has allowed anyone to set up as an instructor without any training or checks.
To join the new register, applicants must complete a training programme and pass a three-stage test. They will also have to prove they have tax and garda clearance.
From December 31st, 2008, only driving instructors registered with the new body will be allowed to continue in operation.
After this date, it will become a criminal offence for unregistered instructors to give driving lessons for reward.
From early 2009, learner drivers will be required to have completed a set number of lessons with a registered driving instructor before sitting their test as part of a series of driver training reforms.
The current dispute centres on the more than 1,400 instructors who are members of the Driving Instructors Register (DIR) - the predecessor to the ADI - who believe that training secured through this agency should make them exempt from parts of the registration process.
DIR chief executive Des Cummins says that rather than retraining DIR-registered instructors, the RSA should merely test them. The DIR claims that it represents up to two-thirds of all instructors.
"We are not objecting to some form of test. But to expect people with years and years of experience to start from scratch, to go through the entire training progamme in just 11 months, and have to pay €800 for the pleasure is trying to recreate the wheel," he said.
"Many instructors are furious. They are very frustrated. The RSA is insisting that they are not going to accept in any shape or form the DIR standards, and they are looking at it very arrogantly - in terms of 'You do our test or else'."
Mr Cummins went on to say that instructors registered with the DIR had been given repeated assurances by various ministers that they would be exempt from future tests.
"Why else would some people spend thousands getting trained through the DIR and keeping up to date, in a system recognised and co-funded by the Department of Transport?
"What the RSA are saying to our members is 'You don't meet our standards'. The DIR had ISO accreditation, but that doesn't seem to matter."
Mr Cummins said that "at the absolute minimum" the estimated €800 cost of registering should be waived for DIR members.
With six months of negotiations apparently having reached stalemate, many instructors are now looking at other options. A mass meeting is planned at a Co Laois hotel on Sunday, February 3rd, where the formation of a new representative body to negotiate on behalf of instructors is to be discussed.
To date, just 22 instructors have completed the training programme and are fully registered, while a further 162 instructors have applied to join the register. Over 1,000 have a temporary registration.
Noel Brett, chief executive of the RSA, said no organisation had a blanket approval for entry into the new register. He said each instructor must demonstrate that they meet the standard in the theory test, practical driving test and instructional ability.
"They can demonstrate this by taking each of the three part exams or by credits for qualifications gained with awarding bodies either in Ireland or elsewhere which meet or exceed the RSA standard," Mr Brett said.
However, it is understood that the qualifications available through the DIR are not considered sufficient to meet this standard, and that the RSA believes the the vast majority of those currently working as instructors should go through the full process.
Mr Brett added that the RSA has the capacity to allow all instructors who wish to register before the December 31st deadline to complete their training and exams.
