Cowen invited to ‘road safety lesson he will never forget’

“IF Agriculture Minister Barry Cowen wants to come down here to Kilworth, I will be very civil to him and I will give him an education in road safety that he has probably never got in his life.”

Noel Clancy, Kilworth, lost his wife and daughter in an accident involving an unaccompanied learner driver in 2015 and this is the offer he has made to Minister Cowen who it has emerged had been driving on a learners permit when he was 49 years of age.

Noel’s wife Geraldine and 22-year-old daughter Louise lost their lives in the accident just half-amile from their home on December 22, 2015. Geraldine was taking her daughter to a bus in Fermoy when they were in collision with a learner driver.

As far as Noel is concerned, the issue about the drink driving had been dealt with in 2016 when the yet-to-be minister was caught and put off the roads for three months. “What you cannot excuse is that he was driving on a learner permit for what must be the bones of 30 years,” he said.

Mr Clancy pointed out that in 2019, 19,000 people applied for driving tests, paid their €85 fee and never turned up for the test but that meant they had satisfied the conditions to be issued with learner permits.

He also disclosed that, to date this year, 1,300 cars were impounded by Gardaí because the drivers were caught driving unaccompanied and without a full licence. The reduction of traffic on the roads due to COVID-19 had to be taken into account as the figure could have been a great deal higher in normal circumstances.

“I want to invite Minister Cowen down here and I will show him the graves in Ballyduff Cemetery and I will walk and talk him through the crash and what happened.”

He added that the girl who was driving the car which collided with his wife’s car was 20 years of age, a young driver trying to learn and pass her test and that was different from the many thousands of older drivers who were rolling over their learners’ permits from year to year.

“The average age for driving test applications last year was 29.6 years – so that means there are thousands of older drivers out there on learners’ permits.”

He challenged the Government to enact legislation without delay to close the loophole which allows this. .