Gerard Craughwell (Independent)

I almost referred to the Minister of State as "Senator Buttimer". It is a pleasure to see him here. I congratulate him on his election to the Dáil and his elevation to a ministerial post. I know from my time with him on the transport committee during the previous Government that he has a personal commitment to addressing waiting times for the driving test and that he is committed to the argument we are having now.

Twenty seven weeks, rising to 40 weeks in some areas, is a very long time. On the commitment to reduce it to ten weeks by September, I would be interested to see how we do that. I will offer a solution that the Minister of State might bring to the Minister of State, Deputy Canney. We have a plethora of former driving instructors in the Defence Forces and former gardaí who would easily qualify as testers and greatly assist in reducing of waiting times. They are situated all over the country, so there would not be great problems in finding people in, for example, Roscommon who could test in Galway or vice versa. There is one slight impediment, which is the issue of pension abatement. No one will return to the public service where pension abatement exists. I ask the Minister of State to bring this suggestion to the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, and the Minister and have it discussed at Cabinet. We could see movement very quickly on getting testers into the system.

I think back to my own time in the mid-1980s when my business went bust. I went to AnCO and took an eight-week driver training programme on a truck. I got my test at the end of the course and I was driving trucks commercially within nine weeks or thereabouts. I was not a very good driver but I drove trucks anyhow and it put dinner on the table. At the end of the day, there is a solution. That solution is to use the assets we have in the country. Military driving instructors would also have been testers in the military, so they would be well qualified to test members of the public. If we are to see rapid reductions in waiting times, let us use the people we have. Many of these people had to retire in their mid-50s and they are now probably doing jobs that are not suitable for the skills they bring. I ask the Minister of State to consider introducing former military personnel and former gardaí as testers.