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

I thank the Minister of State. As a point of clarification, and if the Minister of State does not have the information to hand perhaps she will forward it to me, if there are 18 temporary driver testers and a further 18 will be hired, does this mean there will be 36 in total? Will they all be kept on in a full-time capacity?

I was going to mention the theory test. There is an issue with the backlog of driver tests, and we will probably see this issue continue for a long time, and there is also a backlog with the theory test. The only way to tackle all of this is to have testers in a full-time capacity. There should be consultation with the testers, the driving instructors and their representative groups because I am sure they all have ideas on how to deal with this. Everybody wants to see this matter resolved.

The Minister of State is from a rural constituency and she understands that a car is not a luxury in rural communities. People have to have one. It is a basic requirement for getting children to school and for people getting to their jobs. It is particularly disappointing to see young people not being able to apply for certain jobs or not being able to take up jobs because they cannot get a driver licence. There are also other issues with regard to the cost of car insurance for young people, which is a major problem. I appreciate what the Minister of State has said about doing the theory tests online and it seems like something that surely could be done.

See this speech in context