Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)

Cuirim fáilte roimh na finnéithe. Many of my questions have come up already. I will concentrate on my area because the lack of public transport in the north west means more people are forced to use their cars. Recent numbers given to me indicate 1,209 people are waiting for a driving test in County Sligo, 2,317 in County Donegal and 513 in County Leitrim, which is a total of 4,039 in the entire north west, where we have nine testers. There are five in Donegal but none in south Donegal, which is a big concern. There are three testers in Sligo and one tester in Leitrim. There are nine testers to deal with the backlog of 4,039 people waiting for a test. This means there are 449 candidates to each tester. How many tests are testers expected to do in a day?

It came up that people are now employed on permanent contracts. Is overtime being taken into account? How is this broken down? Is it over seven days a week? If the waiting times are going to come down, will testers be doing 22 tests per week? I know it is part of the RSA's action plan for September to increase the number of testers in Sligo. This is welcome, but an additional person in Leitrim would really help. The person there could be redeployed once the waiting lists have reduced. My first questions are how many tests are testers expected to do per day and is there a possibility of employing an extra person in Leitrim?