Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I expect the online theory tests to open within the coming weeks, if not days. It is imminent, and will be followed shortly afterwards by the reintroduction of theory tests in person. They are critical. Younger people have suffered particularly during this coronavirus crisis. We need many younger people to be engaged on farms across the country this summer and they might be able to do so if they have their learner's licence. Also, many younger people are looking to get back to work and part of that for many of them will involve the ability to drive. Getting the theory test is the first and most immediate hurdle.

The volume, as I said initially, online will not be limited but it will not clear the full backlog. It will be the combination of that and the return of the in-presence theory test, and the return to what we did last summer when we dramatically increased the volume of people who work in the area, that will ensure the average of 15,000 theory tests a month will be scaled up to approximately 25,000. That is what we intend to do.

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