John Paul O'Shea (Cork North-West, Fine Gael)
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14. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport further to Parliamentary Question No. 312 of 1 April 2025, to provide an update on the number of driving test assessors currently assigned to Cork; the number if the projected doubling of testers at the end of April was achieved; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22670/25]

Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)
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52. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the steps his Department is taking to reduce the waiting time for driving test appointments at test centres in Cork; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22681/25]

James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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272. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the plans to address the long driving test wait times in County Cork and nationally; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23107/25]

John Paul O'Shea (Cork North-West, Fine Gael)
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I ask the Minister for Transport, further to Parliamentary Question No. 312 of 1 April 2025, to provide an update on the number of driving test assessors currently assigned to Cork; the number if the projected doubling of testers at the end of April was achieved; and if he will make a statement on the matter. It is a serious issue nationally but particularly acute in Cork.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 14, 52 and 272 together.

I thank Deputy O'Shea for his question. As he knows, under the Road Safety Authority Act 2006, the Road Safety Authority, RSA, has statutory responsibility for the national driving test service. I have been advised by the RSA that, following a recruitment process, the number of testers in Cork has increased from nine to 16 and it is envisaged that this number will increase to 18 by the end of the year. I acknowledge that current waiting times for driving tests are far in excess of what is acceptable and I reassure Deputies that measures are being taken to address this issue. I met with the RSA 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' waiting time.

To support the RSA in increasing testing capacity and improving service delivery, in September 2024 my Department sanctioned an additional 70 permanent positions for driver testers. This increases the total number to 200, which represents a doubling of the number of testers from 2022. The recruitment process is under way, with the first tranche of new testers now being deployed into service. As additional testers enter the system, testing capacity will increase and progress should be seen on reducing waiting times in the months ahead.

As a condition of the sanction given in September, the RSA was required to put in place a plan 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. I have told the authority that this is not acceptable given the level of delay already being suffered by learner drivers. I have instructed the RSA to review the plan and identify further measures that will bring forward the date for achieving the target. The RSA has assured me that service will be restored to the target level in a reasonable time, and I am determined to ensure that this happens.

As I said, I will meet the RSA again next week. I want to see its plan, which I will monitor continuously. As far as I am concerned, this is a crisis that we need to get resolved as quickly as possible.

John Paul O'Shea (Cork North-West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for his engagement on this matter and his public statement last week asking for the RSA to come back to him with further information on reducing these waiting lists. This is a particularly acute issue in Cork. We have more than 4,000 people waiting for a driving test in Mallow, 11,500 people waiting for a Wilton driving test, and more than 2,000 in Ballincollig and a further 2,000 people in Skibbereen waiting for a driving test. That is more than 20,000 people waiting. The Minister of State is right when he says we have young people who are on provisional licences and who need to have this test. One young fella came into my constituency office last week. He will start an apprenticeship at the end of September. He is really struggling to find this test in time because he will not be able to commute to and from his house to get that apprenticeship going. I am also dealing with a girl who sought and got a job for the summertime and unfortunately cannot travel. That is a real challenge. These are the real-life challenges that are there for these young people who are trying to get a test. I encourage the Minister of State to engage with the RSA again and to come back with a further update. I welcome the fact that there has been an increase in the number of testers in Cork but we need more.

Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)
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I had two people on to me this week. One person got their appointment for 22 December in Wilton, in Cork. The other person's appointment is for 5 January 2026. That is an outrageous period of time that people have to wait for a test. I have parents on to me. One parent's son has to be dropped to work at 4 o'clock in the day and his other parent has to collect him after midnight every night because he is not able to drive to and from work. He has gone through training and has been driving for quite a while but still cannot get a date for a test. We are talking about over eight or nine months' waiting time. This has to be sorted far earlier. I fully understand that people were recruited, but the whole process seems to take forever as regards dealing with the waiting time and dealing with the young people who need to get the test done and get a full driving licence.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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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.

Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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We only have two minutes left, so I will give each speaker 30 seconds. I call Deputy O'Shea.

John Paul O'Shea (Cork North-West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, for his continued engagement. The Minister of State, Deputy Buttimer, who is also from Cork, is well aware of the situation in the county. I agree with the Minister of State that we have many no-shows and this unfortunate. It is important that the RSA comes back and offers young people the opportunity of late cancellation appointments. I know people who have cancelled in the past number of days and late appointments would have been accepted on that basis. That progress is encouraging and we must try to keep the momentum going to reduce the waiting lists.

Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State very much for his reply. What we need to do, however, is to set out a clear plan to try to get the waiting time back to ten weeks. At the moment, there appears to be no plan. There is a plan to recruit people but targets do not appear to have been set. This is extremely important. It will probably take three years, and a clear plan should be set out now for the next three years in respect of how we can get the waiting time down to ten weeks.

Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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It appears there is not a shortage of driving instructors but there is certainly a shortage of driving testers. Some of the instructors could be brought over on secondment to do a day or two a week, perhaps in their own county or in the neighbouring county, so they could try to clear some of this backlog. That suggestion was made to me recently by the driver of a large vehicle, who said the waiting time was inordinate and has disrupted the company's logistics chain. Why not use some of these people and bring them in on secondment? I was a teacher for 14 years. When the Department of Education had a gap in a certain area, it would seek secondments to backfill the shortages.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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To respond to Deputy Crowe, as I said earlier, nothing is off the table. In the past, we have used private instructors to do testing, so nothing is off the table as far as I am concerned. Turning to Deputy Burke, what he said is exactly the point. I want to see what is going to happen on a weekly basis, how the numbers are going to be reduced and how the additional testers will be put in place. I need to see the workings of this process. I will not accept half-hearted programmes. I need to see this done clinically and we need to monitor it continuously. Hopefully, we will get the waiting time reduced, and we will start to do it straightaway. It is a big problem but in fairness we are working on it. I accept everything the Deputy said is true. It is shocking because we have front-line workers and young people in this situation and their lives are being disturbed so much. They lose confidence in everything if they do not get their driver licences.