Any provisional drivers caught yet?

I think the Guards will have to police this appropriately. If they start pulling every learner and fining them there will be bedlam. It would also in my opinion be grossly unfair. There are many people out there who have taken jobs in locations that would have required the use of a vehicle (even if on a provisional licence). They now find themselves outside the law.
If you were faced with the choice of following the letter of the law or driving to work so you can pay the mortgage and put food on the table for your family, I know which I would pick.

Yet again another half cocked ill-thought out idea that is in my opinion unenforceable. Especially given the lack of alternative public transport. - the cart before the horse again.
 
rmelly said:
Yes, it was second provisional ONLY that didn't need to be accompanied. Have you sat the test at all?
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iv sat the test 3 times , i even got pretests and was told i was grand nothing much to worry about at all. it baffles me because a young person i know that wrote off 2 cars and is known to be a careless driver passed their test recently.
 
merzie said:
iv sat the test 3 times , i even got pretests and was told i was grand nothing much to worry about at all. it baffles me because a young person i know that wrote off 2 cars and is known to be a careless driver passed their test recently.
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You may have had to sit the tests you did under "normal conditions"at those times. The recent flood of testing would appear to have resulted in a higher than previous pass rate, looking at the stats in recent months. I wonder how many people sitting yesterday failed ?
 
merzie said:
iv sat the test 3 times , i even got pretests and was told i was grand nothing much to worry about at all. it baffles me because a young person i know that wrote off 2 cars and is known to be a careless driver passed their test recently.
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Good luck next time.
 
In all fairness I find it difficult to believe that nobody saw this coming. In know officially it was announced back in December however the signs were there for the past two years. It was only ever a matter of when (not if) they were going to crack down. While I do sympathise with those that have been left in the position of having to break the law in order to go about their business there if a large part of me that feels that it really shouldn’t take 4 years to get around to taking your test, if you were really serious about wanting to drive you would have applied on receipt of your first provisional, paid for and taken lessons (from a reputable instructor) and having done everything right passed the test. Even with a year wait that still gives you four attempts. To borrow a saying “Fail to prepare, prepare to fail”. It seems that too many people chose to believe that the powers that be wouldn’t really do anything about this and that it will never happen or that the Guards won’t really enforce the law.

At least this process has exposed a large minority of drivers who have failed several tests and really have no business on the roads. I really do believe that you are either licensed to drive or you are not, there is no grey area. There are too many variables to consider while driving at the best of times without wondering if the person behind / in front / coming at you head on as actually bothered to properly learn how to use the machine they are operating.

While I do feel sorry for those who are affected by the new regulations, I will not be loosing any sleep over them.
 
I also feel sorry for these people, but the law needed to change. If it was the case that everyone was entitled to drive on the road with a provisional license then what (with the exception of lower insurance) would be the incentive for anyone to sit a test. Provisional license = ability to drive???

Also, in 12 months time things will have changed. People had become complacent in the current situation - i.e. don't need to bother too much about test as I can still drive. Once the backlog (of older people who have become dependent on their cars in such a scenario) has been cleared , it will be mainly younger people in their training phase that will be obtaining provisional licenses and they will naturally move through the system to full driving license followed by dependence on car.

The way it was - get car & provisional licence - get dependent on car - maybe think about trying to get full license.
 
i passed my test two weeks ago and in celebrations i ripped off my l plates. i have the cert of competency in my car, but have not had the chance to collect my pink licence...where am i? does the cert cover me as a full licenced driver??

Sorry for jumping in???
 

AFAIK your cert should be enough, it proves you have passed your test
 
theoneill said:
AFAIK your cert should be enough, it proves you have passed your test
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But it's not a full licence and the only licence still held is a provisional. The Coc only entitles you to apply for a full licence. From what I remember the CoC actually states on it "this is not a substitute for a full driving licence" or words to that effect.
 
I think you're right. I'm getting confused with the pink slip they hand you at the tax office. Better high tail it to your local tax office and submit your application. The receipt they give you will do till your license is posted. Sorry about that
 
Would someone please explain the logic to me WHY you should be allowed to drive unsupervised if you have not passed your test?
 
elefantfresh said:
Would someone please explain the logic to me WHY you should be allowed to drive unsupervised if you have not passed your test?
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I had the same question - as per my post above - the main reason I can see that is been given (not just here but from people I have heard talking - radio/TV/friends) is that they need their cars! Sometimes people don't seem to think these things through (8 months for example)
 
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hi,
I looked up the R.S.A. website this morning and no you are still technically driving on a provisional licence.
your cert of competency is'nt recognised until it's swapped for a full licence.

so... legally you need both your L plates an a qualified driver!!

sounds daft, doesn't it?

only a right bad ******* would do you for that! I think garda discression is the key... I'm sure there's plenty of boys in blue on provisionals who have to get to work too!

I haven't ventured out yet... still debating whether or not to leave my L plates up
 
elefantfresh said:
Would someone please explain the logic to me WHY you should be allowed to drive unsupervised if you have not passed your test?
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theoneill said:
It's an Irish solution to an Irish problem
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This goes right back to 1979. Not enough testers, too many applicants, so give anyone with 2 provisionals a licence. The Irish solution. Same later with the first provisional accompanied, second not accompanied, third accompanied, rule. React to the situation rather than having defined rules to start with. Then people get used to believing that the non-application of a rule is actually the rule itself. A major attitude change is needed and will probably come but it will be the generation of driver being tested from now on who will be the ones pass that attitude on.
 
This provisional thing drives me nuts (no pun intended!!).

I could understand the uproar six months ago when the clamp down was first suggested. Provisional drivers should never have been allowed to drive on their own, but the Gardai turned a blind eye for years so the public had a legitimate expectation that that would continue. But these drivers were given six months as some breathing space. Get it together!
 

the problem from what I can see is that people have due to a circumstances out of thier control, (lack of public transport / urban sprawl/ cost of house prices necessitating living a distance from thier place of work) have a lack of alternatives. They have built thier lives around the ability to use thier car, at a time when it was ok to do so. The use of the car was there when they made life altering decisions (place of work / house location).
In my opinion its simply not good enough to simply say you cant do that anymore. - In a perfect word maybe but not as things stand. This is a problem brought about by recent governments inability to come up with a wrkable solution (e.g on-going training centres where drivers on L plates could do training while continuing to use vehicle)
The bottom line is, and there is no getting away from the fact that some L plate drivers actually do not have a choice but to use thier cars.Period.

To demonstrate a "they should not be driving and that is that" attitude shows a distinct lack of understanding of the situation some people found themselves this morning. Its great they have the full licence but it doesnt solve the problem that there are over 100,000 drivers on the road this morning who shouldnt have been not out of choice but out of necessity.
 

I understand what you're saying and this is why the government did a total u-turn 6-8 months ago whenever it was - learner drivers have had that long to get off their arses and learn how to drive - this did NOT sneak up on anyone did it? Surely to goodness 6-8 months is more than enough time to apply and pass a test isnt it?
 
I believe that the six month time frame drawn up allowed people an adequate amount of time to schedule their tests (provisional driver friends told me this but I'm open to correction). If this is the case, all provisional drivers should have taken a test. If they failed, how on earth can anyone argue that they should be on the road?! I get the issue of a lack of public transport, etc, and I don't underestimate it. But people are either safe to drive unaccompanied on the roads or they are not. If they are competent, then they should have passed their tests within that six month period.

Seriously, what am I missing here?!!
 

Brian,

I do have sympathy for some of these people, but things did need to change and it was not acceptable to change it over night. Hence (all be it a late move) the buffer to allow people to have there tests carried out before the enforcement. However, these people were not born driving. The next generation will grow up knowing they must pass the test before they can become reliant on a car. The problem with our generation is people grew up becoming dependent on their car with no incentive to get a full license. This had to change and unfortunately there will be some pain in the transition.

Do you think we should have maintained the statusquo? If not how would you have approached the problem?
 
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