Mr. Brendan Walsh:

No. Back in 2020, there was an application for 80 testers made to the Department of Transport. We received sanction for 40 appointments, and those 40 staff were deployed in the service. Six months later, we received an additional sanction to take on an extra 40 staff to get us up to 80 but, unfortunately, we were not in a position to bring those 40 instructors on board. Instead, we worked with the Department to bring in 30 permanent testers instead of the additional 40 temporary staff. We did reduce the number of temporary testers in 2022 because they had reached the end of their contractual relationship with us. We were in a situation whereby we had initiated an open competition for driving testers. Those testers who were temporary were free to apply. Quite a significant number of them did so and subsequently took up the permanent posts.

As to where we are now and why the current situation has happened, there are a couple of points to make. First, there has been a 36% increase in the number of people applying for a driving test. Data we have now show that over the past four years, there has been an increase of 61% in the number of people under driving training, that is, who are going through the process of becoming a driver. Most recently, we looked into this on an age-by-age basis, which is the first time we were able to do so. What we found, which goes back to Deputy Crowe's point, is that by far the biggest increases are in the cohorts of individuals aged 17 to 20 and 30 to 39. In the first of those cohorts, there was a 48% increase over the four years in the number of people who are actively on that journey to acquire a licence.

This increase is driven by a number of situations. For the younger cohort, we believe it is really being driven by the fact the housing situation in metropolitan areas is very difficult. Many people, including the children of some of my colleagues, are driving to college on a daily basis because they are unable to secure accommodation. We also believe that the growth we are seeing in the cohort of people aged 30 to 39 is a direct result of what we saw during the Covid period, when a lot of people chose to decentralise. They now require driving licences. Fundamentally, however, the growth is driven by population. The latest figures we have show the population is significantly growing, particularly in that younger cohort. It is among this cohort that we really see the demand for driving lessons.

That goes back to Mr. Waide's comment to the effect that we will need 170 testers available at all times in the future in order to maintain the service level. That is because there will be more people, and more of them will want to drive. We have a housing issue that is forcing college students to drive rather than stay in digs. Society has changed, and this is reflected in the service. We want to ensure that we can offer a service in the future and people can get their licences as quickly as possible.