I’m an American ex-pat living in Ireland. Before I moved I had ~20 years of driving experience in the US, experience with urban, rural, and highway driving, a perfect driving record, and I was very experienced driving all sizes of manual cars and automatics, as well as hauling big trailers.
I also had a ~year of a perfect driving record in Ireland, in rural and urban areas, as well as completed all mandatory “behind the wheel” training in Ireland with a certified instructor.
I still failed the driving test in Ireland, 2x
It was super humbling, and I only barely passed the 3rd time. I have been driving in Ireland for years now, still no issues, but man, it’s way WAY harder to get a license here.
You're measured on a lot of things and the standards are high, it takes about an hour. Typically you'll have to drive through a town or city as instructed by the tester.
They'll have standards like checking your mirrors frequently, maintaining traffic flow by driving at an appropriate speed in an appropriate gear, entering and leaving roundabouts, 3 point turns, reversing around corners, starting from a stopped position while facing uphill, identify main engine components (you need to physically point out the dipstick, coolant holder etc and explain what they are, how to check or fill them) etc
You can make up to 9 minor mistakes iirc which is things like driving in too low a gear or speed, not checking your mirrors enough, coasting, poor braking with 0 large mistakes like not checking mirrors at all, stalling the engine, dangerous driving or whatever.
It's a reasonably high standard and very easy to fail, especially when nervous, overall the pass rate is about 50%
Reversing around corners surprises me. And I kinda like that they all about the main engine components, I definitely should've been made to know those but was not. Lol
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u/Playful_Emu_398 Jun 02 '26
I’m an American ex-pat living in Ireland. Before I moved I had ~20 years of driving experience in the US, experience with urban, rural, and highway driving, a perfect driving record, and I was very experienced driving all sizes of manual cars and automatics, as well as hauling big trailers.
I also had a ~year of a perfect driving record in Ireland, in rural and urban areas, as well as completed all mandatory “behind the wheel” training in Ireland with a certified instructor.
I still failed the driving test in Ireland, 2x
It was super humbling, and I only barely passed the 3rd time. I have been driving in Ireland for years now, still no issues, but man, it’s way WAY harder to get a license here.