Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak on this very important workers' rights issue. The denial of basic shelter and hygiene facilities, and for the avoidance of any doubt that is access to a toilet, for these workers is nothing short of a disgrace. They are left waiting out in the freezing cold and the rain while their students take the test in the instructor's car. The Road Safety Authority, RSA, will not let them use these basic facilities in the course of their work. I will quote what some of the workers are saying in their own words. One worker called Laura, who works on the north side of Dublin, stated:

It is a daily stress and humiliation to have to revolve my work schedule around how often I can travel home to use a toilet - especially at certain times of the month. I find I’m constantly dehydrated too because I’m trying not to consume liquids in case, I can’t find a toilet in an emergency, depending where I am on any given day. As a result of all this, I have had to reduce the number of students I can teach per day, which in turn has had a very negative impact on my finances. It’s not fair to have this added stress in work during a pandemic, especially coming up to Christmas.

Another worker, Dominic, in Dublin, summed it up when he stated:

Why has the department of transport classified driving instructor's as essential workers and then made their profession, health and dignity nonessential. When is the Minister going to take the RSA in hand and insist that they find a solution to this easily fixed problem? Why is the RSA controlled service of NCT'S different to driving test centres? Can the Minister explain how test applicants without private cars should sit their tests, if the Minister insists that instructors are not required at test centres?

I have been writing to the senior Minister for months and every single time they kick it back to the RSA and every single time the RSA does nothing. It is absolutely Baltic outside at the moment but even if it was not, they would still need to use the toilet.

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