Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I think the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, made the point regarding the delays Deputy Crowe cited, not just in driver testing but in a number of different areas regarding licences and the national car test, NCT, etc., that it is completely intolerable that we are so far beyond expected timelines to deliver them. There has been no shortage or lack of willingness to provide the extra staff in each of the various areas, including driver testing. The application the Deputy referred to is still being considered but I do not believe the restriction will be on the departmental side in terms of getting the allocation for that. We want to get the numbers down, which will require additional driving testers. We are not going to block or restrict the ability of the RSA to scale up the testing capabilities.

I would simply ask the Minister to sign off on that because the RSA is waiting on it. We heard it very clearly here last week. It needs to get these 40 additional drivers. There is then the whole lead-in of advertising, recruiting and appointing them to various test sites. The longer it sits on a desk, the longer young people, especially in rural Ireland, are disadvantaged. It is a simple point. We just ask this be signed off on.