At 1 January 2001 it is estimated that some 345,000 provisional licences were current. This compares to an estimated 380,000 provisional licences current at 1 January 2000.
The Government strategy for road safety, 1998 – 2000, acknowledged the importance of driver training and testing to road safety, with the qualification that these could not be expected to yield road safety benefits on the scale of the measures directly targeted at speeding, alcohol and seat belt wearing which have been prioritised by the strategy. The strategy proposed, for the longer term, a significant reduction in the number of Irish drivers relying on a provisional licence.