Barry Reid, from Irish Wheelchair Association’s Motoring Assessment Advice and Tuition Service (MAATS) organised and ran a very successful training day on Thursday for Road Safety Authority (RSA) personnel in relation to a range of matters relevant to disabled motoring.

Attendees from the RSA included their National Training Manger, Regional Managers and Test Supervisors, the latter of which are the personnel who carry out all driving tests for all motorists using vehicle adaptations.

Attendees at the Training Day hosted by IWA’s MAATS service

A huge amount was covered on the day including an outline of the MAATS service, and a discussion on a range of matters such as driving tests, licencing and so on.

Joe McCormack, a driver of a highly adapted vehicle gave an outstanding talk on the issues that drivers face when driving adapted vehicles.  He also outlined, in a very humorous way, his driving assessment and lesson experiences with Barry.

All RSA representatives also got the opportunity to drive a variety of adapted vehicles ranging from IWA school vehicles to highly adapted vehicles supplied by Motability Ireland

It was a hugely productive day that gave those attending a greater appreciation and understanding of the challenges facing motorists driving adapted vehicles.

Well done to Barry for the level of preparation and detail involved in organising this event, which will greatly assist our clients on test days going forward.

IWA’s MAATS was featured on RTE’s Nationwide Programme on Wed April 3rd. You can watch it back via the RTE Player here.