Louis O'Hara (Galway East, Sinn Fein)

Many young people in my constituency have been waiting months on end for their driving tests. It is incredibly disappointing that the delays in this regard have worsened since this issue was last raised by us in February. Being able to drive is an absolute necessity for any young person who lives in a rural community in the context of their independence and allowing them to lead an adult life and secure work and educational opportunities. The Government often appears out of touch with that reality, particularly when we consider recent hikes in the cost of fuel, insurance and so on, but especially when it comes to the outrageous delays people face in securing driving tests.

In County Galway, up to the end of April, there were more than 4,000 people waiting for a driving test invitation. This includes more than 600 people waiting for tests at the Loughrea test centre and 800 waiting for tests at the Tuam test centre. Those waiting for a test invitation can expect a 22-week waiting time for a test in Loughrea or 26 weeks for a test in Tuam. This flies in the face of the Government's statutory maximum waiting period of ten weeks. I note the Minister of State's comments, but these come three months on from our motion in February that included a suite of measures to tackle the backlog, increase the funding of permanent driving instructors to end the reliance on temporary instructors, address the shortfall in the number of driving test centres throughout the country by mandating the OPW and the RSA to plug the gaps and implement a strategic plan to achieve that statutory maximum waiting time of ten weeks. The Government has ignored all of that for the past three months. None of these proposed solutions has been implemented in the interim. We need less hot air and bluster and more actual solutions to tackle this backlog. We also need action.

See this speech in context