Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank both Deputies. As Deputy Griffin said, we will be monitoring this very closely in order that we do not yo-yo back into a situation that is just unacceptable.

On Deputy Tully's point, when I entered the Department earlier in January, part of the challenge was that it was clear there was a total mismatch between demand and the capacity of the system. Increasing the number of testers from 100 to more than 200 provides a degree of resilience and the capacity to deal with the other consequences that might arise, as Deputy Tully correctly said, whether that be due to illness or unexpected absences.

It is about having flexible deployment of testers in different regions; it is not about allowing the waiting time for any area or region to go back up to where it was. We want to ensure that we have a wait time of ten weeks, which is the service level agreement, which is being requested of the RSA in the context of its operational responsibilities. We want to ensure that that is met in the middle of 2024 and maintained in order that there will be certainty for people who hold learner permits, and for those who know the demographic of our population. There are many people, apparently teenagers, from whom there will be ongoing demand for driving tests in the years to come. It is important that we maintain and have that capacity to intervene as required. We must have a public service that has the capacity to address wait times in order that they are not more than ten weeks. That is our target. It is about building a resilient service which can meet that demand.

There are also the wider road safety considerations and concerns, particularly among many of the victims' groups, on the issue of learner permits. We have to ensure that we bring as many people to the point of getting a test, getting the lessons, and ensuring that they are brought through the system in a way that also promotes road safety. I thank both Deputies for raising this issue.

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