Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)

I am glad the Deputy raised this question because it is a problem throughout the country. I understand his frustration.

I will first provide an outline. The Road Safety Authority Act 2006 gave statutory responsibility for the national driver test service to the RSA. At the end of April, the average estimated time for invitation to test for a candidate was 25 weeks. I am told the waiting time for invitation to test in Kerry is 23.5 weeks, so what the Deputy said was the truth. This is far above the acceptable service-level agreement target of ten weeks. Measures are being taken to address this issue.

As the population has grown in recent years, the demand on driver testing services has similarly increased. In 2024, the busiest year in the history of the service, more than 250,000 driving tests were conducted, up from over 196,000 in 2023. This increase in demand for driving tests and the time to invitation for learner drivers has a number of contributing factors. These include an increase in learner permits in circulation, increased capacity in the driver theory test and an increase in advanced driving instructors' capacity to deliver lessons to learner drivers.

My Department has sought to support the RSA in meeting rising demand through a number of staffing sanctions in recent years. Most recently, in September 2024, the Department sanctioned an additional 70 permanent positions for driver testers.

This increases the total permanent sanction for testers to 200, which represents a doubling of testers since June 2022.

As a condition of sanction, the RSA was required to put a plan in place to restore the ten-week waiting time target as soon as possible. When this plan was first put forward by the RSA, it envisaged a return to the target by November 2025. This is not acceptable given the level of delays already being suffered by learner drivers. I met RSA representatives last week to discuss this issue and instructed the authority to return in two weeks with sustainable proposals which will provide a faster resumption to the service level agreement of ten weeks.

The recruitment process for additional testers is well under way, with the first tranche of new testers now being deployed into service. These testers are being assigned to test centres nationwide as the candidates complete their training. As additional testers enter the system, testing capacity will increase and progress should be made on reducing the numbers.

The Deputy may be aware that driver testing is offered on Saturdays where driver testers are available to do overtime and there are also additional morning and evening test slots offered where daylight allows. This has been the case since the current backlog in driving tests started to build up. To further assist with reducing waiting times, in October 2023, a change was made to the system to allow any unused slots to be made available for anyone to take up at short notice. If a driving test is cancelled at short notice, the RSA makes this appointment available to candidates on the MyRoadSafety portal.

While new testers will bring additional capacity in the short term, in the longer term it is intended that the RSA will be reformed consequent to a Government decision of November 2024. This reform will be carried out on a phased and planned basis. A departmental group led by the Department of Transport and comprising relevant stakeholders is tasked with developing a comprehensive implementation plan, including required legislation, to ensure the reform delivers road safety benefits and an improved customer experience.

I assure the Deputy that I am engaging with the RSA on an ongoing basis on proposals to reduce wait times to ten weeks.

See this speech in context