Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

I will continue in the same vein as some of the other Deputies from across the country. People from my constituency also use test centres in neighbouring constituencies. People from north Kildare would have used Fonthill in the past, but they now use Tallaght and Naas predominantly. We have seen wait times increase. My colleague in north Kildare, Deputy Cronin, referenced a 28-week waiting time in Naas while her colleague referenced 43 weeks in Tallaght. Those are the waiting times for people in north Kildare. When I looked at the website today, the first note I saw from the RSA said that a reasonable waiting time would be between ten and 12 weeks. Obviously, we are missing those basic targets.

I want to be fair because this was an issue when I first started learning to drive many years ago. The waiting time could be a year or even 15 months, so it was not unusual then. It was wrong and made doing the test difficult for my friends and I. Ultimately, they were able to resolve the situation. I will not say the issue went away, but it definitely seemed to have repaired itself for the next generation of drivers. I do not know whether it is due to the pandemic or the subsequent impacts, we seem to be back to where we were in 2010 and 2011 and we have seen a deterioration. The impacts are the same as they were when we went to do the test. Somebody looking to get a job or a student starting college needs to drive, which is becoming more common because of the lack of or difficulties with student housing as people come to Maynooth University. We know bus and rail services are under pressure. My constituency has seen increased fares in the third area of the county.

I welcome the work of the Minister of State and the opportunity to discuss it with him on behalf of the citizens of north Kildare.

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