Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are 41 driver testing centres nationally. On Monday, there will only be 40 because the biggest town in Ireland, with a population approaching 50,000, will not have a test centre. This is despite the Road Safety Authority, RSA, having decided six or seven years ago to have a permanent centre in Drogheda. Residents in an estate in Drogheda are being blamed for the closure. That is not good enough. I, along with Councillor Paddy McQuillan and others, have offered the RSA numerous sites for centres which would be suitable. If these centres can be located in Birr's County Arms Hotel, GAA and golf clubs up and down the country and if even Mallow racecourse can have one, why in the name of God can Drogheda not have one? I urge the Tánaiste to intervene and insist that the RSA honour its pledge to have a permanent site in Drogheda because 2,717 people who have applied for driver tests will not be able to do them on Monday in the largest town in Ireland. They will have to go to a town or place they do not know and have never driven in. It is not good enough. We need the Tánaiste's intervention.

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