The European Commission is taking the Government to court over driving test standards. The Government has failed to comply with EU rules over minimum standards for theory and practical tests, according to the Commission vice-president, Ms Loyola de Palacio.
"It is unfortunate that a piece of legislation that reinforces road safety has still not been fully transposed throughout the EU," she said.
The EU directive on driving licences is designed to ensure similar minimum standards in all member-states, adapted as and when necessary to "scientific and technological progress in the field".
A Commission statement said: "It aims at further harmonising driving tests and bringing the testing requirements into line with the demands of road safety by increasing the minimum examination level."
All EU governments were given until the end of September 2003 to put in place national laws, regulations and "administrative provisions" to meet the latest requirements.
Only Ireland and Portugal have failed to do so and both are being taken to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
The Commission emphasised yesterday that the relative speed with which it had reached the stage of launching action "is an illustration of our determination to ensure that member-states implement correctly and on time measures they have themselves agreed".
Last night a spokesman for the Minister for Transport, Mr Cullen, said the matters highlighted by the Commission were of a technical nature and had nothing to do with road safety.
Regulations to transpose the directive into law were being drafted and would be approved shortly.
The Labour spokeswoman on Transport, Ms Róisín Shortall, described the Government's failure to implement the EU directive as merely the latest addition to the long list of serious problems with the driving test system in Ireland.