Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----because at the minute, from this side of the table, I do not feel that the urgency is there at present. Some 30 weeks of a wait time is absolutely ridiculous, especially for people who are starting a new job or who want to go to college. I do not feel the urgency there from the RSA to implement emergency measures that should be implemented to get us to mid-2024 when normal service can resume. Some 30 weeks is an awful long time for a young person not to have access to a car on his or her own. It is very difficult for a person in rural Ireland.

I also ask that the RSA revisits the retirees who were testers previously, the contract staff who were previous testers and to explore all avenues to get them back in place to ensure that the backlog is addressed in some way. We cannot wait for a situation where we invite the RSA back to appear before the committee next January or February and we still have an issue trying to address the backlog. We have seen from when the RSA previously appeared before this committee back in February that there has not been much improvement. The authority was giving us an explanation by way of the increased demand for tests. We accept that but on workforce planning, it should be exploring every avenue to drive down the wait times, especially for young people because it is very concerning.

The feedback we are getting, as referred to by Senator Dooley, in our constituency offices is that people expect a public service. The RSA is not providing that now. If this happened in the Passport Office, it would not be acceptable or tolerated if we had wait times exceeding what they currently are for online applications or for written applications. The Passport Office increased its headcount nearly twofold where at this stage the Passport Office has more than 900 staff. Whatever needs to be done to address the driver test backlog needs to be done. If the Minister or the Department are not engaging with the RSA in this regard, we need to convene another meeting to ensure that we explore all solutions to the problems.