Social Democrats TD Aidan Farrelly has said it is time to introduce universal road safety and driver theory test programmes in schools across the country.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Drivetime, he said the current scheme that teachers are asked to do is not enough and said “very little” is currently done in the classroom around road safety.

“When we’re talking about transition year students or fifth year students, which is what this proposal is aimed at, what we see is the Road Safety Authority have an eight to 10 session manual that is available for teachers to run should they have the time,” he said.

Mr Farrelly said his party wants to see a small fund established to employ 50 development officer positions hired directly within the RSA.

These officers would tour schools, youth services and youth reach centres to ensure they get adequate road safety education.

“What we are cognisant of is that what young people receive in terms of road safety education isn’t sufficient,” he said.

Mr Farrelly said the sessions would cover all aspects of road safety.

“What young people don’t really have the opportunity to discuss and learn first-hand from is either people who’ve been involved in different collisions, from gardaí, from first responders.”

Mr Farrelly said the benefit of this is “to understand the magnitude of the weapon that you’re in control of”.

The Social Democrats TD said informal education can play a key role to improve road safety.

“If there’s a universal approach applied to this, then we can be assured that the next generation of road users, whether they be drivers, pedestrians or cyclists, are getting the same standard of education.”

Mr Farrelly also said it is important to confront dangerous behaviours young people may be exposed to on social media.

“We heard about TikTok trends and we heard that kind of culture and behaviour was learnt over online platforms and that kind of thing needs to be challenged

“The best way for information to be challenged like that and for cultural practices to be stigmatised is in an informal education setting where young people are safe to ask questions.

He added that such an approach would also help “challenge each other on what some of those normal practices may be,” he added.