Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

I hope we will carry out 180,000 tests this year. I agree the system as it was would not eliminate the backlog. In spite of every effort to thwart my plans to outsource tests, I stuck to my guns. I was successful at every level in terms of resolving this issue but I wish I had received better co-operation. Despite people telling me to abandon the matter and to give up, I did not do so. There will now be a three-pronged approach involving driver testers testing at night and at weekends, additional staff from the Departmental of Agriculture and Food and contracted staff being put in place and outsourcing. We are now in a position to see a radical reduction in the backlog.

I agree with the Deputy that ten weeks is not satisfactory and, ultimately, the period between a person applying for and sitting a test must be reduced to six weeks. That would be a good system. I expect, in light of the figures factored through the system, that this will work if all of those involved deliver on their commitments. I expect that they will do so.

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