Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is a very important debate. Ms Coleman said that the majority of the testers would be delivered to Dublin. I regret that because people in rural areas such as Killarney and Cahersiveen have distances to travel. It is not good enough for young lads who need a licence to go to work or to travel long distances to college because they cannot not get places to rent in Limerick or Cork to apply last January and be told their test will be next January. These young lads are driving distances because they must travel from remote areas in the hills and glens of Kerry. Perhaps some of them get on a bus but they must travel as far as the bus because the bus does not come to the door. A father contacted me last Saturday whose son applied for a driver test last March. He needs him to drive his van. He has a furniture business in Killarney. He has been told that he will get the opportunity to apply for a date for his test next January. He is not getting the test in January. He will be allowed for apply for a date then. He is waiting longer than from January to January and from March to January. This is a regular occurrence and people are outraged. I hear about the number of youngsters who are awaiting a test. If they cannot be provided with tests, it is an emergency. They are needed for work. Businesspeople cannot get people for anything. These young fellows have a job but they cannot drive legally on the road. Sadly we hear a lot about accidents on the road and we do not want any more of them but a drastic measure is being taken to sort that out. Not enough drastic measures are being taken to help these youngsters. When you are young, you need to get a chance to go on the road. They have done the 12 lessons and to be waiting for so long is not fair. I call on the Minister to do something drastic or to take emergency action to help these people who have done the 12 lessons. They are told they must then wait 12 months before they can actually apply for a driver test. God almighty, they must be allowed to drive if they have done 12 lessons until such time as their date comes.

It is too long to wait. I am sure our witnesses are reasonable people. Surely it is not acceptable to be told that it will take 12 months, having applied to do a test. The whole thing has fallen asunder. Killarney is a desperate problem. It is just impossible and Tralee is just as bad. I am talking about Kerry. I heard Deputy Dillon talking about Mayo but we have a desperate situation down in Kerry at the present time. I am asking the witnesses to do something.

I was not enamoured to hear that the majority of new testers would be given to Dublin because public transport is available in Dublin. We do not have that level of public transport in rural areas and people need a car to go on the road. Parents or siblings cannot drive these people to work or college. I am making the strongest case possible, even to the Minister, to take some urgent action to deal with the emergency that exists at the present time. I hear people saying a year and a half but a year and a half to a young fellow is a lifetime. It is a lifetime and that is why they are emigrating. They are going away because they cannot wait. They need to make a few bob and to make themselves useful and they cannot do this or that without a licence in rural Kerry and even in urban Kerry, in places like Killarney. One cannot get out of it if one does not have a car.