David O’ReillySchool of Motoring
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David O'Reilly standing beside his grey Ford driving-school car, L-plates on the bonnet, under a clear blue sky.

RSA-approved driving tuition

Covering Waterford & county and surrounding areas.

David O’Reilly teaches learner drivers on the roads they will actually use — town, national route, and the lanes in between. Twelve EDT lessons, signed into the logbook, one hour at a time.

WhatsApp 087 123 5262Call

€60 first lesson, logbook included. €50 after that.

Waterford · Dungarvan · Carrick-on-Suir · Piltown · and between

One instructor. The school car. Your logbook.

Lessons are in the grey Ford, L-plates front and rear, roof sign up. Each hour follows the RSA Essential Driver Training syllabus. The point is calm, correct driving — useful on a test morning and on a wet evening afterwards.

A session
1 hour
Before the test
12 lessons
Logbook
€10 in lesson 1
Close view of the school car roof sign: David O'Reilly, 087-123-5262.

Essential Driver Training

The 12 lessons

EDT is 12 one-hour sessions with an approved instructor. They have to be finished, and signed into your logbook, before you can sit the driving test. Lessons 1 to 8 run in that order. Lessons 9 to 12 can be taken in any order once those are done. Lesson 12 is after dark.

In order · lesson 1

1. Car controls and safety checks

The cockpit before the road. Primary controls — steering, footbrake, parking brake, accelerator, gears and the clutch on a manual — and the secondary ones: lights, wipers, washers, demister, horn, windows and locks. Then the checks that decide if the car should move at all: tyres, lights, oil, coolant and washer fluid, and the reasons a car is not roadworthy.

Moving off and stopping in a quiet place, a first look at eco-driving, and planning a journey. This is also the lesson the RSA logbook is sorted on.

Between lessons. The RSA suggests about two weeks, and practice with a sponsor — a driver who has held a full licence in the same category for two years.

Bring your learner permit. It is checked, and the session is recorded. L-plates stay on the car. Learners cannot use motorways.

Already licensed abroad? You may qualify for reduced EDT: six sessions instead of twelve, often 1, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10. Check eligibility on rsa.ie before we start.

How the driving is taught

POM, MSPSL and LADA

Three routines, used until you stop having to remember the letters. On a test, a rushed routine shows up as a mirror fault or a late observation. We slow it down until it is automatic, then we take it onto busier roads.

Every time the car moves off from rest. From the kerb, from a junction, after a stall, after a parking manoeuvre.

P

Prepare

Cockpit first. Seat so you can push the clutch to the floor, mirrors set, belt on, doors shut. Select first gear, or Drive. On a manual, set a little gas and find the biting point. Handbrake stays on until you are ready to go.

Poster: How to Set Your Side Mirrors, comparing a safe wide view, a mirror too full of your own car, and a setting that leaves a blind spot. David O'Reilly School of Motoring.
Side mirrors, the way they are set at the start of a lesson.

How the mirrors should look

  • Safe

    A wide view of the road behind you. You should just see a sliver of your own car, enough to place it, and the rest of the mirror is road, not door.

  • Too close

    Your own car fills the glass. That feels reassuring and it is useless — you already know where your door is. The lane beside you has disappeared.

  • Blind spot

    Wound out so far that a vehicle alongside is almost gone. You will miss the car you most need to see before a lane change. Set them before we move off. Every lesson starts there.

Roundabouts

They get a proper lesson, not a drive-through. Approach in the correct lane and run MSPSL. Give way to traffic already on the roundabout — it comes from your right. Take a gap you can use, not a lunge. Signal left as you pass the exit before yours, check the left mirror, and leave. Don’t stop on the roundabout unless you have to.

Diagram of a roundabout with cars and coloured arrows showing different paths through it.
Different exits, different approach lanes. The routine stays the same.

What it costs

Plain fees

No block price hiding in the small print. The first hour is dearer because the official logbook is in it. After that, every lesson is the same.

First lesson

€60

One hour. €10 of this is the RSA logbook. You are not charged the €10 again on top.

Every lesson after

€50

EDT sessions, extra practice, and a pre-test lesson. One hour, same rate.

Work out a run of lessons

A full EDT course is 12.

€610

First lesson €60, then 11 × €50. That is the full set of 12 EDT lessons.

Where the lessons are

Waterford to Piltown, and the roads between

Lessons run in Waterford, Dungarvan, Carrick-on-Suir and Piltown, and on the N25, the N24 and the quieter lanes that join them. Town junctions one day, a tractor and a bend the next.

  1. 01

    Waterford

    City streets, busier junctions, roundabouts and the start of the N25. The kind of traffic a test, and a Tuesday, will actually give you.

  2. 02

    Dungarvan

    Town centre and the road west. Speed limits that change, and the habit of noticing that they have.

  3. 03

    Carrick-on-Suir

    The N24 corridor, the bridges, and the quieter roads in. Good ground for positioning and for meeting something slow.

  4. 04

    Piltown

    Village streets and the rural roads toward the Kilkenny side. Narrow, and honest about it.

And between. National roads, villages, hills and lanes where the limit changes and something slow is already in front of you. That is most of the driving, and it is where the practice usually isn’t.

  • The grey Ford school car facing the camera on a gravel lane, L-plates and roof sign up, Waterford hills behind.
    The school car, L-plates on.
  • Side of the school car with the roof sign reading David O'Reilly and 087-123-5262, on a country road.
    Roof sign up. Same number as the website.
  • Three blue tractors in a line on a narrow road between bright green fields, under a wide sky.
    Sharing the road is not a theory chapter out here.
  • Aerial view of a large stone castle beside a river, with formal gardens and green fields beyond.
    Lismore, above the Blackwater.
  • Stone castle on a wooded bank above a dark river, under heavy cloud.
    The same castle from the river road.
  • A tall standing stone in open grassland, with a rounded hill behind it.
    Open hills. Bends, sheep, and a long view.
  • A weathered rural sign on a green fence reading Bull Shit Corner.
    The signposts have opinions. The speed limit still applies.
  • An old carved stone head and torso inside a glass case in a stone building.
    The county has a long memory. The roads run through it.
Seven numbered toy cars jammed at a junction, under the question: which car if put in reverse will solve the traffic problem.

While you wait for the lesson

Which car, in reverse, clears the jam?

One car only. Put it in reverse and the rest can leave in turn. Same habit as a real junction: look at who is blocking whom before you move.

Pick a number.

Book a lesson

Call or WhatsApp David

087 123 5262. Say where you are along the Waterford–Piltown run, and whether this is a first lesson or one of the twelve. Bring your learner permit on the day.

Call 087 123 5262WhatsApp
  • 1. Message or call. We agree a time and a meeting point in the area.
  • 2. One hour in the school car, on the topic you’re on in the syllabus.
  • 3. The session is signed into the logbook before you get out.

This opens WhatsApp with the note filled in. Nothing is sent until you press send there.