No map of way ahead for driving instructors

While many local businesses are busy preparing to start trading in line with the government’s roadmap for the phased re-opening of the economy, local driving instructors say that they have no idea when they will be able to start operating again.

Seamus Kiernan of the Seamus Kiernan Driving School gave his last driving lesson in mid-March. He says that the roadmap gives no indication when he and his fellow instructors will be able to return to work.

“We are getting no guidance really. There is not light at the end of the tunnel for us at all,” he told the Westmeath Examiner.

Seamus, who has been a driving instructor for 16 years, says that while the current 2m guideline for social distancing could not be maintained while teaching someone to drive a car, with the numbers of local confirmed cases falling significantly in recent weeks, classes could soon be given if a number of safety measures were implemented. These protective measures would include the installation of a shield at face level to separate students and the instructor and taking people’s temperatures before a lesson.

“Both instructor and student could still use the gear and handbrake and make sure that everything like handbrake, steering wheel and seat are sterilised before each lesson.

“It could get us back up and running...They way I look at it is that the backlog for the testing will be phenomenal.”

Seamus says that he has been inundated with messages from students who have completed their mandatory 12 lessons and are eager to take their driving test as soon as possible.

“I have no answer for them because I don’t know and we aren’t getting any answers from anybody. There are other people who are on a second learner permit and they are wondering if they will get to renew their permit and be able to practice.

“I think the shield is a wonderful idea and that it would get us up and running,” he said.

Seamus’s fellow driving instructor Graeme Paxton of Graeme’s Driving School believes that at present there is no prospect of him and his counterparts around the country returning to work soon. He is unsure that the safety measures being discussed provide a high enough level of protection.

“Social distancing is impossible in our job. I have looked at all the different possibilities such as partitions in the vehicle. There are some out there that would suit taxi-drivers but not a driving instructor. We are not going to go back until we feel it’s safe for ourselves,” he said.

Graeme, who has been an instructor for around a decade, says that he will only return when the number of people contracting the virus has fallen to a suitably low level. If that doesn’t happen relatively quickly, he says that he have to look at a new way to make a living.

“You have to be looking at what’s happening in your local area. If you are seeing very few deaths and very few numbers of infections most people are going to say I think it’s worth the risk.”