Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

This situation has not just occurred overnight but has been the case for several years. Moreover, the backlog does not include all the people who have simply ignored the system and drive without any form of licence. It is an awful situation. The Minister talks about providing incentives to get existing driver testers to work longer hours, recruiting temporary testers and outsourcing the work. If he accepts that all this work needs to be done, how can he believe the complement of 119 testers is adequate? The Minister noted the rate of car ownership is increasing and that people are beginning to drive at a younger age. Surely we need to increase tester numbers in line with the growth in population.

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