Over 11,000 learner drivers in Waterford are a 'direct threat' to safety of other drivers

New figures released from the Irish Road Safety Authority (RSA) reveal that there are 11,247 learner drivers on Waterford roads.

Nationally there were 394,128 learner permit holders at the end of September 2025. 

That is an increase of 12,257 learner drivers on our roads since March of this year, just six months ago.

The extraordinary number of learner drivers on Irish roads comes at a time when road deaths are spiralling.

As of November 20th, 2025, Garda figures show that 158 people had lost their lives on Irish roads; nine more deaths than on the same day in 2024.

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Most learner permit holders in Waterford are aged between 17-20 (2,653 drivers) and 30 and 39 (2,562).

14 learner permit holders in Waterford are over the age of 80 while 77 learner permit holders are between 70 and 79 years old in Waterford, according to figures provided by the RSA.

Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) President Ger Hyland warned that the surge in learner drivers on our roads poses a direct threat to Irish road safety.

"To have 394,128 inexperienced drivers on our roads is a testament to the failure of the Road Safety Authority and their mismanagement of our driver testing system. It is a mess and not getting any better, despite all the creative accounting that the RSA are doing with driver testing figures," he said.

Hyland pointed to Garda figures which show that 2,754 fixed charge notices were issued nationally by Gardaí in the first three months of 2025 alone to learner drivers caught driving without a fully licensed driver.

That is an increase of 9.5% on the same period in 2024.