Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I am encouraged by the tone of his response and the fact he understands the urgency and that something needs to be done, and that he intends to look at this. I also welcome the fact that in his response he outlined the seriousness of the situation specifically in Skibbereen. He mentioned the figures there. The service level agreement is ten weeks, 19 weeks is the average and Skibbereen is facing waits of 25 weeks. That is exactly what we are hearing in the constituency office. Young people in the geographical area of west Cork are experiencing longer waiting times and are becoming frustrated. There was a question of the Skibbereen centre closing and I welcome confirmation from the RSA that it is not going to close. However, it is one thing not to close it.

It is another thing to make sure it operates efficiently and effectively and gives people the waiting time for a test they deserve. That is going to require investment and resourcing and, at the very least, it is going to require moving the Skibbereen test centre from being resourced by one tester to two. The increase of that extra driving tester will massively reduce waiting times.

There is also the parallel issue that there are many driving instructors in Skibbereen who rely on this for their income. They rely on the fact that Skibbereen is a town where people can go to do their driving test and, therefore, people choose to have their driving lessons there. There are many fantastic driving instructors in Skibbereen who rely on this and they will see the economic benefits of an extra tester being placed in Skibbereen.

Let us not forget what this is all about. It is about young people who want their independence. They want to be able to drive themselves to grinds, to work or wherever they want to go. This is what it is about. These 25-week waiting lists are just too much. Let us work to reduce that and let us get an extra tester in the Skibbereen test centre.

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