{"id":256284,"date":"2025-12-29T14:42:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T14:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/256284\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T14:42:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T14:42:12","slug":"driving-testers-energy-making-learners-feel-uncomfortable-among-complaints-to-rsa-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/256284\/","title":{"rendered":"Driving tester\u2019s \u2018energy\u2019 making learners feel \u2018uncomfortable\u2019 among complaints to RSA \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Learner drivers arriving to their test unaccompanied and a tester\u2019s \u201cenergy\u201d making a person feel \u201cuncomfortable\u201d were among the complaints made to the Road Safety Authority<\/a> (RSA) about its driving test service last year. <\/p>\n

Another complaint submitted to the State agency which provides driver testing and licensing, told of how a resident\u2019s housing estate was becoming \u201cintolerable\u201d as it was being used by testers and learner drivers. <\/p>\n

The complaint, which was among a sample released by the RSA under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, said the area was experiencing \u201cup to 12 cars per hour practicing on our corner, seven days a week\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cUp to three cars can be lined up at any one time waiting to use the corner for reversing,\u201d the complaint said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is becoming intolerable. I totally understand that students need to practice but the volume of cars is simply too much and is impacting on our use of the road, including accessing the driveway, turning down our road, children playing on bikes, scooters etc.\u201d<\/p>\n

The complainant added it was \u201cimpacting on our privacy\u201d, that it had been \u201ca very quiet estate\u201d until last year and asked if the estate could be used less frequently. <\/p>\n

Last year, the RSA received a total of 2,024 complaints in relation to the driving test service \u2013 equating to under one per cent of the 253,850 tests carried out in 2024. <\/p>\n

There have been 1,952 complaints received in 2025 up to the end of November, according to the RSA.<\/p>\n

The authority said the nature of complaints received \u201cvary significantly\u201d and could relate to a range of issues regarding the operation of the driver testing service, waiting times, test centres and online issues. Other complaints related to learner drivers feeling that their test was not conducted fairly, that a driving fault was unwarranted or that their test wasn\u2019t conducted because they failed to meet certain conditions.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Minister defends decision to not disband Road Safety Authority despite review recommendationOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Among the sample complaints released was a person who said they \u201cwitnessed two drivers today arriving for their test with no accompanying driver and yet went in, did their test and passed\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs this not against the law?\u201d they asked. The complainant said they were accompanying a learner driver to their test that day. <\/p>\n

A separate complaint from a learner driver said they were told by an examiner their \u201cEnglish was not good enough\u201d despite living and working in Ireland for three years. <\/p>\n

The person said maybe their \u201cperception was off\u201d but that the tester made them feel \u201cuncomfortable\u201d and had failed on the traffic signs element of the exam. <\/p>\n

Another complaint outlined how a learner driver had failed their test three times and acknowledged they had made \u201ca few errors\u201d during their first test which were \u201caccurately reflected in the test report\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, in my second and third tests, I believe the examiner\u2019s conduct was unprofessional and the faults listed in the reports were either incorrectly assessed or not present at all,\u201d they said. <\/p>\n

The RSA said all complaints are reviewed in full by the driver testing team and responses issued out to complainants.<\/p>\n

Separately, among the most frequent reasons listed by the RSA for an unsuccessful test was moving off, reaction to hazards, roundabouts, controlling the clutch and gears and progression on the straight. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Creator of road safety device for the visually impaired honoured at RSA awardsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Learner drivers arriving to their test unaccompanied and a tester\u2019s \u201cenergy\u201d making a person feel \u201cuncomfortable\u201d were among…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,18,19,17,11697,79877],"class_list":{"0":"post-256284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-road-safety","13":"tag-road-safety-authority"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115803386547742389","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}