Sharon Keogan (Independent)

I want to voice the frustration of tens of thousands of people across the country who have done everything right, paid their fees, booked their tests and now are stuck waiting. They are waiting not days or weeks, but months. For some, it can be almost a year. Let us call it what it is - a failure of Government planning and oversight and a failure to prioritise the needs of ordinary people. In April, the average waiting time for a driving test stood at a staggering 27 weeks. That is more than double the RSA's target of ten weeks. The situation is even worse in certain parts of the country. Tallaght, Dundalk and Navan are seeing waiting lists of up to 43 weeks. That is nearly ten months of limbo. At last count, more than 83,000 people were waiting to sit their driving tests while another 50,000 were stuck in the backlog of driving lessons and test eligibility. That is more than 130,000 citizens affected. These are not just statistics. These are young people who are unable to take up work in rural areas, parents who cannot drive their children to school or jobseekers who are forced to turn down offers because they cannot get a full licence in time. What is the Government's response? More promises of hiring 75 testers and reducing waiting times by September. Forgive me if I do not hold my breath. We have heard it all before. Time and again, the RSA has missed its own deadlines, yet there are no penalties or consequences, just soft excuses and hard impacts for working people.

Let me be very clear. This is not just an inconvenience. It is a barrier to employment, education and independence. In rural counties like Meath where I come from, public transport is not an option. It is a fantasy. People either drive or they are stranded. This is the case in many parts of rural Ireland. At this stage, we have all heard stories of people who have had to quit college because they cannot make the commute. We have heard stories of people who have had to put their lives on hold because they cannot wait for the retest. This is not acceptable in a functioning society.

What do I propose? First, hold the RSA accountable. We should introduce financial penalties when waiting time targets are missed, just as we do with the NCT contractors. Second, we should expand the number of permanent driving testers, not temporary contracts or Band-Aid solutions. Third, we should open additional test centres in high-demand areas, particularly in rural Ireland where the need is greatest. Finally, we should explore online systems for cancellations and rescheduled bookings to speed up the process and allow motivated candidates to fill the no-show slots.

If we continue to ignore this problem, we are telling an entire generation that their time, plans and lives simply do not matter. I will not accept that and I urge the Government to stop managing headlines and start managing the system. The people of Ireland deserve better.