Mr. Brendan Walsh:

We currently have a waiting time of 15.5 weeks for a driver test to take place. That has significantly increased from this time last year. We are working within the RSA to scope out how we have got into this situation. We have looked at the number of people who are under training in the advanced driver instructor, ADI, curriculum, which is at an extraordinarily high level. In addition, we have added 125 new ADIs this year, to bring our total to 2,172 who are in operation. A further 139 are currently going through their accreditation. That means we will have the highest number of driving instructors ever. These individuals are becoming driving instructors because there is demand from the public. That demand will cascade into a requirement for driver testing. We are looking at all of the relevant data and scoping out a plan which will require us to increase the number of testers we have in play in the future. We will make submissions about what that looks like.