Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister, Deputy Shane Ross, for coming before the House and giving his time to discuss this very important subject. I will try to use my time constructively. There are a number of statistics that the Minister's statement to the House did not deal with. I spoke with the Road Safety Authority earlier today. Today there are 70,000 waiting for driving tests whether for private cars, commercial vehicles or for buses. There are 52 test centres in the country spread across 31 local authorities. The Minister has accepted that what has happened is not satisfactory and says there is a plan to recruit testers. When I spoke to the RSA last week, I was informed that it had not made any appointments; there was one panel in situbut others were needed. The RSA informed me that a substantial number of people had retired this year and that a significant number will retire in 2018. It told me that it takes eight weeks to train someone and today no one is in training, so there will not be one single additional instructor this year. If we did have one it would be in late December. These are the facts.

The current system is not working. The Minister cannot stand over a situation where there are 70,000 people who have paid a fee and are legitimate applicants waiting on a list for tests. These are people who want to go to college or take up employment and they cannot do their tests. It is most unsatisfactory. It is the Minister's responsibility, in his portfolio of transport, to address this. I want him to say how, in co-operation with other agencies under his responsibility, he will increase the number of new testers. Will he assure this House that there will be new testers in place before the end of this year? How will these lists be cut?

I deal in facts. When I spoke to the testing centre in Tipperary today at 9.30 a.m. I was told that applicants had to wait 27 weeks. In Waterford, 26 people have been waiting for 26 weeks. In Wexford they wait 25 weeks and 21 weeks in Cork. Kerry is divided in two with waits of 24 weeks in Tralee and 23 weeks in Killarney. In fairness to the Minister he does accept that this is totally unacceptable that 70,000 people are waiting to do driving tests. It is not an average of 10 weeks. It is a critical issue which must be addressed with resources. It needs to be taken head on. I will bring this back to the House in December for further report. I am committed to sticking with this problem and achieving a resolution.