Irish drivers

Are the Irish Good Drivers?Hmm. None of this is intended to scare you - most visitors who drive in Ireland go home intact, if chastened by the experience.

About 40% of drivers on Irish roads have never passed a driving test. Yes, they are driving legally and are (for the most part) fully insured, but on what is called a provisional license. This is really intended to be a license that allows someone to drive a car while accompanied in order to learn to drive but, for reasons too boring to go into, a situation has evolved where people can renew these licenses pretty much indefinitely and drive as though on a full license.

To keep getting these licenses drivers must take a test periodically. However if they fail, which many do, they can just say a polite thank you to the tester, get in their cars and drive happily away, in spite of the fact that they just tested as not being of sufficient standard to so do.

Whether it is as a result of this or of widespread poor road conditions, poor enforcement of traffic laws, a combination of these or something else entirely, Ireland tends to feature close to the top of European league tables for both road accidents and road deaths.