Mr. Robert Morton:

Driver licences were a considerable barrier to recruitment in early 2021. We recruited people at the beginning of 2022. We only got six applicants for 96 places. We identified driver licences as a major barrier. We changed the eligibility criteria and introduced a phased system whereby one had to have a car licence to apply, a provisional licence to start and secure the appropriate driving licence within six months. That has massively addressed a major issue for us, but it has also left is with a new problem, whereby we now have people who are novice drivers and still require driver training within NAS. We only have two instructors. We have to establish a driver training school internally. We do an emergency service driver training programme which is a three-week bachelor of technology accredited programme. It is a UK-based standard, but there is an Irish standard called the emergency service driving standard, which is accredited by the Road Safety Authority, RSA. Our goal this year is to recruit ahead of driver training this year, with a few to securing accreditation from the RSA and getting to a place where we can deliver driver training internally. It is a tremendous bottleneck in recruitment.