Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy McNamara and his colleagues for bringing forward the motion. The fact that local NDLS centres are not accessible to many people who need to get a licence if they do not have a public services card is nothing short of our joke. Many Deputies have said the same thing. If it was not broken, why fix it? The Government has a habit of doing such things. It tampers with something that is good and that delivers and ends up making a mess of it. It was the same with the reverse last night by the Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party Government on early intervention units. It had removed funding for the unit in Kilbrittain. It reversed the decision last night after I had raised it three times in the Dáil. This is embarrassing.

The same goes for people trying to obtain licences. Many Deputies have rightly asked why post offices cannot be used for people to get their driving licences. It is easy to know why. The Government's agenda is to get rid of post offices by starving them of work and giving them no chance to keep their doors open.

Vehicle licensing in this country needs a complete overhaul. Look at people who come back to this country and have to sit a theory test and a driving test. It is a farce beyond belief. One man told me he could drive through New York one week but cannot drive through Goleen when he comes to Ireland the following week.

The wait of months that many Irish drivers have had to endure over the past two years ahead of a driving test looks likely to continue for quite some time. During the height of the pandemic driving lessons and testing services were put hold. As a result, Ireland's driving licence backlog reached astronomical heights. Although everything has been done to clear waiting lists it will be quite some time before normal timing resumes. The RSA states that at this point, having hired testers and with restrictions easing, 60 centres throughout the country have reduced their waiting times down to the ten-week mark. However, other centres still have a backlog of between 12 and 18 weeks. This is not for the physical test alone.

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