Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses. This has knock-on effects. I acknowledge that there is a huge backlog, but I have seen scenarios where there are difficulties arising for people who have secured jobs. I know of one individual who passed all his aptitude and medical tests for the Army but could not take up the cadetship because there was a requirement that he needed to have a driving licence. This issue impacts on people's lives, including many youngsters. Perhaps I should not say so in this committee but there are many people in rural Ireland who are driving without an accompanying fully licensed driver because their life has to function. They have to get to college or work. The day will come when there is a serious accident and the insurance underwriter involved will have to make a decision. The arrangements people are having to make might function for them day to day, but when something goes wrong, it will go radically wrong. Those drivers' insurance will not be underwritten and their claims will collapse. This has huge ramifications. I ask again that there be a bias exercised in the allocation of the extra tester capacity, when it is achieved, by way of preferential treatment for the counties in the west of Ireland in which the situation is more pressurised than it is in the east-coast counties.