Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)

I thank both Deputies for their contributions. I think every TD has received correspondence from young people or parents in the same position. I an email last week from a parent about their son, whose test has been postponed eight times since he applied for it. The dates have been shifted out. That is not acceptable to anybody.

My meeting with the RSA leadership last week focused on the need to reduce the current waiting times. I have instructed them to identify further measures that would bring forward the date. As I have told them, nothing is off the table as to how we address this. I will meet them again next Wednesday. They have given me assurances that the service will be restored in a reasonable time. I do not accept the wording "reasonable time"; I want to see specific dates by which that should happen.

I will say two other things, in fairness. Over the last two years, 8,000 people have not shown up for their driving test. That is not acceptable either.

People are not even notifying the driver testers that they are not going to be there, which would give an opportunity to somebody else. Over the past two years, we have lost 8,000 tests because of people not showing up. This needs to be highlighted as well. It is very selfish of people not to show up for their tests or to at least provide notification if they cannot show up. I accept an emergency can happen on occasion but to have 8,000 no-shows is not good enough.

The demand for driving tests has increased. The busiest year in history was 2024, when 253,000 tests were carried out. This was up from 196,000 tests in 2023. We know there is increased demand and people need to get their driver licences so they can go to work or college. Many people cannot find college accommodation so they have to commute some way, especially if there is no public transport access. We must deal with this issue. As I said, this is an emergency. I am in ongoing discussions in this regard. No idea is off the table in trying to reduce the numbers as quickly as possible. The Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, are working closely with me on this matter to ensure we deliver earlier times and get the ten weeks back as the acceptable norm, and to reduce it even further. If we can reduce it in the first instance, then we can keep reducing it. We also want to create certainty in terms of when a test might be happening.

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