Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I raise the waiting times for driving test. While it is an issue nationally, the number is particularly bad in my constituency of Carlow-Kilkenny. Of the two counties, County Carlow is unfortunately faring worse with 1,119 currently waiting on a driving test. In a county like Carlow, where access to public transport is extremely limited where it is available at all, there is a huge amount of people who are unable to access employment or are unable to get to their jobs. This is really being exacerbated by the Covid situation because we do not really have access to public transport in our constituency, which is very limited. Where public transport exists it is down to 25% capacity. People are also being encouraged not to take public transport due to Covid but what should a person do if he or she is in rural town or village in County Carlow and cannot get to a job or cannot apply for certain jobs? Many jobs now require a person to have a full licence. I often get contacted by people who have maybe been offered a job on the condition that they have their full licence, are getting it or where the expectation of a job is there if they can fulfil that requirement. It is extremely difficult if there are 1,119 people waiting for a test. The waiting list in County Kilkenny is quite bad as well at 888 people but it is particularly acute in County Carlow.

What solutions are being looked at and what exactly is being done to address this problem? Unfortunately, rural Ireland has, to a large extent, been forgotten about. Since this Government has come into office we have heard a lot about electric cars, cycle lanes, walking and cycling. That is all great and fantastic but is not any good if a person is 20 to 25 miles away from his or her employment. It is not realistic if a person does not have access to a bus or a train, so we need to be realistic about that sort of stuff as well. What exactly is being done to clear the waiting list so people can actually get to work and apply for jobs? I imagine a huge amount of young people fall into this category as well; it is another situation where they are being disadvantaged.

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