Joanne Collins (Sinn Fein)

I welcome the Minister of State back to the House. I will speak about the delay in driving tests, which is an issue that has spiralled completely out of control. At the end of April, the national backlog had grown to a staggering 83,486 applicants, a number mentioned across the floor this evening. It has increased by 10,000 since the start of the year and by 20,000 in the past six months. The average waiting time is now 27.3 weeks or nearly seven months. In some areas, learners must wait anything up to ten months for a test.

In County Limerick, the average waiting time has more than doubled in the past year. In 2024, the waiting period was an unacceptable 11 weeks but today it is 23 weeks. Someone who applies for a test in County Limerick this morning will be lucky to get a test date for before October or November of this year. That is only if they get through the booking system.

Wait times are not just a matter of inconvenience. They stop people from getting to work, college, school and medical appointments. I have heard from young apprentices who cannot take up jobs, parents who must juggle chaotic schedules and rural residents who are effectively stranded. The worst part is that we have been here before. The issue has been debated repeatedly in this Chamber and in the Dáil.

In February, Sinn Féin tabled a motion providing for a full suite of solutions, including matching demand with resources, cutting waiting times to the statutory maximum of ten weeks, recruiting more permanent, not temporary, testers, expanding and strategically locating test centres and reviewing the RSA's ability to manage this crisis. The Government did not oppose our motion but did absolutely nothing with it. That was lip service, not leadership. Now, the situation has worsened even further.

The RSA claims it will recruit 200 testers by November but even that might not be enough. It has not said how it arrived at that number of 200. At this rate, it could be 2026 before we see a real change. Meanwhile, learners must literally pay the price. They fork out €3,000, and sometimes more, just to get on the road. They are locked into extortionate insurance rates because they cannot get a full licence but the Government's line is that there is unprecedented demand" and there are too many no-shows and a Covid hangover. Let us be honest; those are excuses and not explanations. Yes, demand is high but predictable. Yes, no-shows are a problem but actually only account for 10% of the backlog. Even if no one ever missed a test again, there would still be tens of thousands of people waiting. The backlog is a result of mismanagement, underfunding and a complete lack of political will from successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments, now aided by their regional Independent partners who have gone strangely silent since taking their place on the Government benches. Some of those very Independents used to rail against these delays; now they sit quietly as things get worse. The courage of their convictions seems to have evaporated.

I highlight the lack of sufficient test centres in growing areas. Drogheda, for instance, has no test centre despite being the largest town in the country. Backlogs have real consequences. For example, they result in delays in training and recruitment of essential workers like paramedics and bus drivers, force learner drivers to remain on permits indefinitely and create serious safety risks, with hundreds of unaccompanied learner drivers involved in crashes. The Government tells us it is working on it. The Minister is likely to mention a meeting with the RSA and announce new measures. If he does, let us be clear that these measures should have been introduced months ago when Sinn Féin tabled its motion. They are only being announced now due to public and political pressure.