Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

-----when I see legislation like this that is incomprehensible and uncharacteristic of the House. In spite of our pleas for engagement and for amendments to be accepted on Committee Stage, not only does the Minister delay but he recommits items. This is one of them. That is why we are still here ag cáint faoin mBille seo. It is not my decision or the Acting Chairman's.

In Tipperary there are 1,700 people waiting to be scheduled for driving tests. That is only one county. Multiply that figure by 26. They are the people who are waiting to be scheduled. They are not the people who have been scheduled and are in the system and being worked along. With so many testers we can assume there are probably at least 100 a week being tested. I cannot get the figures. What we are seeing here is that people simply cannot get a test within a reasonable period of time. That is my issue. They cannot get the test within a reasonable period of time. They have done their best. They have procured a vehicle and insurance at great expense and have procured driving instructors. I salute them. They are necessary, very good and professional. They also have serious issues with the RSA, which will not listen. It is cluasa dúnta. People cannot even get a date for a test. This is creating massive levels of frustration and uncertainty throughout the country and my county. It must be addressed with all the other demands.

We can talk here ad infinitum and we still cannot get any questions answered. This legislation will be forced through. If the Government had the numbers it would guillotine it. The Minister does not even listen. He does not take account of the fact there have been 23 testers recruited and only six of them are at work. Cá bhfuil an 17 eile? Cad atá siad ag déanamh gach lá? Where are they? I am entitled to ask those questions and entitled to expect an answer and to be proven wrong if I am wrong. The figures I am quoting are directly from a reply to a parliamentary question supplied to me by the Minister's Department. It is my duty to insist we be told where these testers are. It is also my duty to question the statement from the RSA or its agents this week which said they would recruit 150 or 160 new driving testers when the Bill is passed. Live horse and you will get grass. Dúirt bean liom go ndúirt bean léi go raibh fear i dTiobraid Árann a bhfuil póca ina léine aige. The people are too educated for this now. They will not buy this kind of claptrap and unaccountability. They will not and have not bought it. It is not acceptable.

The Minister will not answer any of the questions he has been asked. There is one very serious one, which totally debunks any impression he might like to give that he is interested in road safety. I will not say the Minister is not interested in road safety - I hope he is because I am - but he is not interested in sorting this out and having a level playing field, especially for young people or older learner drivers. He will not give them a chance to fulfil their lives so they are not moping around, sad and despondent because they cannot get a test. They have the lessons done and everything else. The Minister will not answer those questions. I am sorry I am being repetitive.

I will mention customer service in the NDLS again which is being delivered to motorists across the country, including young drivers. It was foisted on us in Clonmel, on young people and learner drivers as well. They could not find the place. They could not get a time or a date. They could not get good or bad from it. In Arklow there is a portakabin and no ticket service like in the tax office. Rows took place there. It was foisted on us by the RSA with no proper consultation, imagination or checks and balances on how it would bed down. I do not know how the Minister managed to keep a straight face when he indicated to me this was done to provide a more efficient and cost-effective service.

It is the same as the driving tests. I am not commenting on the tests themselves but the whole system of getting a test. How can the Minister quote that kind of diatribe that it is a more efficient and cost-effective service? The reality is that three different companies were hired in to do what county council officials in the tax office did for decades. They complied with the statutory instrument all those years ago when the then Minister announced people could buy a driver's licence over the counter because they could not deal with it. Maybe the Minister should suggest some kind of an amnesty. Would that be beyond his imagination or that of his Department? Is there any imagination in there about how we could deal constructively with people who are waiting to do their tests? We want them to be able to get on the road and to be legally on the road. Maybe before using a mallet and a sledgehammer to crack a nut, the Minister will go back to the drawing board and use some bit of imagination to see how he will allow the 1,700 people in Tipperary to get a driving test. How will he allow those young people, some of whom have just finished their leaving certificate exams and want to go on to do third level courses, or older people who have done courses get their tests?

We know the trouble. Deputy Healy-Rae knows they were brought to Turas Nua. Turas Uafásach I call it. People are being driven here and there. Maybe the Minister will allow the people in Turas Nua to get driving instruction free of charge or be assisted to get it from agencies. The Abbey school in Tipperary town has a driving track. It is lucky enough to have the space. It hires in a good tester, Joe Quinn from Tipperary town, and he gives them lessons as part of the transition year project. That is where we should be going with education. We should have the test totally reformed. We should take testing out of this chaotic system where 23 testers have been hired but only six are working. I do not know if it is because there are union issues.Deputy Ross was the reforming Minister who was going to cut away the fat cats and the snouts from the troughs. God knows what books he wrote.

I bought some of them but I am sorry I did. They were a good read at the time and we expected things to be done but we know now whose snout is in the trough and we know whose ears are blocked to listening.

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