24 Mr. Nealon asked the Minister for Defence if he will consider extending the provisions of S.I. No. 285 of 1989, paragraph 29 (1), in respect of military driving certificates and exchange for civilian driving licences to members of the FCA-Slua Mhuirí.

The position is that when the Minister for the Environment sanctioned the exemption scheme one of the agreed conditions was that applicants for exemption from the driving test should have one year's active military driving experience.

As most vehicles allocated to the FCA-Slua Mhuirí units are driven by members of the Permanent Defence Force, members of the FCA-Slua Mhuirí, although trained as drivers for contingency purposes, would be unlikely to be in a position to gain enough active driving experience to fulfil the driving experience requirement.