Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman for the committee's interaction with the RSA and for his comments. I got a lot of very positive feedback on the briefing the Department provided.

At the very outset, I should have thanked my colleagues from the Department who are here with me today. Members found the briefing very useful. It was very detailed and practical to give new Members an opportunity to see what work goes on.

On the consequences for the RSA, the situation should not have got to where we were when the new Government came in. I was actually pretty shocked to see where the RSA was in relation to driver testing when I came into the Department. Myself and the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, and the committee have worked together on this. It must reach that ten-week target. It is working very hard to do that and we are confident it will. We will give it a small bit of a pass if it is one week out, or some fine. However, we have visibility now, which is the good thing, and clarity around it which we did not have at the start when we came in. I want to thank those in the RSA for the work they are doing to tackle this. We were able to make some suggestions that have been implemented on how to tackle the backlog because it has real-life consequences for people.