THE MINISTER FOR road safety has said that driving tests in Ireland should include training on motorways, even if that training is in a simulator.

Seán Canney has said that any review of the driving test “should look at motorways”.

Speaking on The Claire Byrne Show on Newstalk, Canney said it is “important that there is training for learner drivers in how to cope with being on a dual carriageway or a motorway”.

He added that the driving test should be kept “up to date” and “meet the modern challenges that are there on our roads as well”.

Canney said “it’s a reasonable thing to look at” but acknowledged that there are areas that don’t have a motorway which will make it “very hard to test people on the motorway”.

“But at least as part of the training, they would have some experience, be it actual experience on the motorway or be it in a simulation,” said Canney.

“It is important that people get a feel for that.”

When asked by Byrne if such a move would require a change in legislation to allow learner drivers on the motorway, Canney said the Road Safety Authority (RSA) will “be looking at the review of the driving tests”.

He added that driving instructors would provide “valuable input” into any review.

“As a matter of good practice, we should review them and see what’s working best and what we can do to improve them, if there’s any improvements required.”

When pressed on the fact that counties like Donegal and Longford don’t have a motorway, Canney said “we need to see what the challenges are, and how we could get over them challenges”.

Canney added that he “wouldn’t rule anything out” and that “simulators are something that I have seen in use”.

“They’re very effective in terms of giving a person an experience simulating what might be on the road.”

Canney said he has used a simulator and added: “It’s all about technology, that we use the technology to our advantage and make sure that the technologies we have will help us deliver what we can in terms of skills.”

Meanwhile, when asked if there is a “pressure on time for this change” given recent incidents on cars being driven the wrong way on motorways, Canney said this is not the case.

“It’s not that we move quickly, it’s that we move correctly would be a more important point,” said Canney.

He added that incidents such as the M9 collision in Co Kildare in which five teenagers were killed was “a result of people making decisions to go down the wrong way on a motorway, fully conscious of what they were doing”.

“I don’t think any training or any licence or anything like that would stop them if somebody has that attitude,” said Canney.

“We need to use other ways of stopping them and preventing that from happening to protect law-abiding citizens who are using our motorways.

“The two issues are divorced. It’s not as a result of what has happened and of the tragic consequences we’ve had on our motorway.

“But I do believe that we need to look at the driving licences to make sure that we have covered all bases.

“In every facet of life, things change, so we need to make sure that we keep the whole area of driver testing up to the standard and to modern demands.”

Meanwhile, Canney said it “doesn’t rest easily with me” that learner drivers can not drive on the motorway until they pass their test.