Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Boyhan for raising this very important matter.

I cannot comment on the correspondence that has been exchanged between the Senator and the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport. All I can say is that the Minister is attending a Cabinet meeting this morning. I suspect that the Cabinet meeting has occurred because of the national emergency that arose on Monday and, therefore, these events were unforeseen and unavoidable. The Cabinet meeting was scheduled to take place now as a direct result of the national effort that was made on Monday and yesterday to avoid the worst possible outcomes of the storm that hit the country on Monday. As I am the Minister of State with special responsibility for tourism and sport I will read the reply which the Minister has supplied and which deals with the issues raised by Senator Boyhan.

The driver testing service has experienced an increase of almost 20% in the levels of applications during the past four years. This, coupled with the retirement of driver testers, has meant that the waiting times for customers for driving tests have increased. Driving tests are delivered across 52 test centres nationally. The objective of the RSA is to have a national average waiting time of not more than ten weeks. However, the current national average waiting time for a driving test is 14 weeks. The RSA continues to monitor capacity against demand and deploys driver testers to best meet demand across all test centres.

The RSA currently employs almost 100 driver testers. The Department sanctioned the appointment of an additional ten driver testers in October 2016 and a further seven in April of this year. While these assignments have maintained core numbers following retirements, they have not kept pace with the increase in application numbers. Last month, the Department gave sanction to the RSA to recruit a further 11 driver testers. The initiative will allow the RSA to replace retired testers as well as boost driver tester numbers to help alleviate some of the pressures from the sustained increase in demand for tests. It is envisaged that 11 driver testers will be assigned, trained and conducting tests by early 2018. The RSA is undertaking other initiatives - and plans to undertake more - in order to increase capacity to deliver extra driving tests. These initiatives include the delivery of 120 extra overtime tests per driver tester who participates. To date, 49 driver testers have committed to the delivery of the extra tests. It is expected that this initiative will yield at least 5,880 additional tests between October 2017 and March 2018.

A total of 1,184 applicants have been contacted with a view to reducing the number of no-shows for driving tests. As many as 342 tests that would have been lost due to no-shows have been avoided. The tests, in this instance, have been made available to other test applicants. In terms of a reduction in non-conducted driving tests, the RSA will shortly begin communicating with applicants via text messaging and applicants' approved driving instructors, some key messages on the vehicle and document requirements closer to test appointment dates in an effort to reduce non-conducted driving tests.

The RSA plans to introduce, in 2018, a new test booking system that will give applicants much more control over their booking and appointment choice. Regarding people who seek urgent appointments, I am assured by the RSA that there is a priority list whereby cancelled test appointments are made available to such applicants. Over 1,000 tests are cancelled by driving test applicants weekly and these slots are subsequently offered to applicants who require urgent test appointments.

I wish to advise the Senator that the Department has asked the RSA to examine the longer-term staffing needs of the driver tester service to ensure that the RSA can plan for a revision of tester numbers based on demand for tests and better manage succession planning in respect of driver testers who may retire. The RSA accepts that current waiting times remain too high but I am assured that the measures it has put in place will have the desired effect of reducing waiting times for the public.