Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)

Incompetence is the defining characteristic of this Government, which has displayed a complete inability to deliver services.

In many areas, the USSR did a better job of delivering services than this Government. Right now, delivery of a whole range of services is grinding to a halt across the country. There are places in this country where you cannot get clean water from the taps. The electricity drops in 50,000 homes every week. We are talking about a very basic and simple service here but people are waiting 30 or 40 weeks for a driving test to be delivered. It is mind-boggling. It is bananas how this Government is just not able to deliver simple things. That is before we talk about the likes of the national children's hospital, the national maternity hospital or any of the other big projects the country is waiting for. Let us look at the urgency shown by this Government. The Dáil has sat for 35 days since the general election. That reflects a lack of urgency coming from the very top in the delivery of services in this country.

At the start of the year, Meath was already the county worst hit by delays in testing. That delay has grown a further eight weeks since the start of the year. The Government is talking about a national target of ten weeks. In Meath, people are waiting an average of 42 weeks to get a test. There should not be a waiting time of more than a fortnight to get a test but people are waiting 42 weeks. We were told in March that we were going to get three extra testers in the county but there is no sign of them as of yet.

I was recently contacted by a constituent who had failed a test. She went onto the website, which is atrocious and always crashing, and managed to get a date for her next test. She just failed last week. When is her date for the test? She will get a date for the test in January. This Government should hang its head in shame in light of the wait time for that particular woman. She said that when she left, she was told that four or five other people had roughly the same experience.

Never in my 18 years as an elected representative have I seen it this bad in County Meath. This is a particular problem for Meath because we do not have many transport options. We are the biggest commuting county in the country with 85,000 people having to commute to work every day. The vast majority of these have to commute outside the county. In no other county in the country does the majority of workers have to leave the county to get to work. Only 1,000 people per day use a train because the trains only skirt the edge of the county. Navan is the biggest town in the country without a rail line. We have been waiting on that. It has been promised by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael for decades now. Many buses are now ghost buses but, if they do pass, they are often full before a passenger can get on. People therefore do not have an option. The Government is not providing a public transport system for them to get to work and it will not allow them to get a licence to drive a car to work. That is not fair.

If a person fails a test, they can now download an app to try to be put on a cancellation list. The Government is charging €45 for that app. Not only is it refusing to provide the service, but it is rubbing salt in the wounds of the constituent or citizen who is simply trying to get a cancellation date for his or her next test. It is not fair and it is in no way good enough.

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