Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his report. It is factually correct. I accept that but it does not address today's reality. We have 55,000 people waiting to be tested. When are we going to tackle this issue and reduce these numbers? As I stated, in Churchtown, part of the Minister's own area, there are 1,466 applicants scheduled for an appointment as of today at 1 p.m. I can only ask that the Minister keep this matter under review. That is all we can do. I commit to keeping the focus on this issue and to ask questions.

In fairness to the Road Safety Authority, it is very willing to update me regularly on any request I make. That is fair. The Minister did not know in advance I might ask this question and, therefore, he did not address it. Might he consider bringing in some private contractors to work on this backlog for a one-off stint, perhaps for three months? I refer to a situation where large numbers of applicants are still waiting for tests after three months. If that is the case, perhaps some competent people could be brought in for a few months to augment the current services to see if we can make real in-roads into these waiting lists.