Ms Moyagh Murdock:

I will start with the driving test because I know it is of particular interest. We are undertaking a value for money review at the moment. A full review of the driving test system and the service provided by the RSA was previously carried out, as I understand it, in 2012. That review found that it was a value for money service. However, a commitment was made at that time to carry out a further review in a number of years. The review was due to be done again in 2016 and it is being completed as we speak. The review was not done with a view to outsourcing anything. We have approximately 110 driving testers in-house, carrying out approximately 1,800 driving tests per annum. The number of tests that they have delivered increased by two per week following the Haddington Road agreement. We are providing a very efficient service. We were subject to the recruitment embargo, like every other public service in recent years and that resulted in a diminishing number of driving testers being available. We have just recruited and fully trained up an additional ten driving testers. We got sanction for a further seven driving testers and they are undergoing training, which takes approximately ten weeks. We hope to have them in place in the coming weeks.

The majority of test centres are still delivering a test waiting time of between ten and 13 weeks. In some of the smaller centres the waiting time has extended out to 15 to 17 weeks but it is nowhere near 18 months. Some of the smaller centres might have reached an 18 week waiting time but we are confident that with the additional testers that have been recruited and with the provision of additional overtime at weekends over the past few months, we will address that problem. Anybody who needs a driving test quickly can be accommodated on a short-term waiting list. Unfortunately, quite a significant number of people cancel their tests. Approximately 17% of people who book tests do not show up, which means that we have the capacity to take people in at short notice if they are available. While some of the centres have increased waiting times, we fully anticipate bringing them back into line now that we have been given sanction to recruit additional testers.

We fully appreciate that it is very important that young people reach the basic standard of driving competency. It is not a matter of fast-tracking them through the system. They need to do the six-month period of mandatory driving, plus the 12 essential driving lessons. Then they are ready to go for their test. Some people need longer than that and some of those waiting times are as a result of people choosing to wait longer. We are happy with the situation at the moment. In Finglas, Dublin, which is one of our biggest centres, the waiting time is ten weeks. The centre in Tallaght is recording a waiting time of ten to 11 weeks. The average waiting time in Dundalk is 12 weeks. We are just finalising the calculation of the latest figures but, overall, the national average waiting time is 13 weeks for a driving test.