Pauline Tully (Sinn Fein)

As already mentioned, the waiting times for driver tests are totally unacceptable, with over 83,000 people now waiting. The number has ballooned since the beginning of the year. At the beginning of January, it stood at 72,000 and it is now over 83,000. In some centres, the number of people waiting has doubled or tripled in the last year.

The RSA has stated the waiting time should be between ten and 12 weeks, so it is in breach of its own service level agreement. In 2019, the average wait time was six weeks. It is now 27.1 weeks, or almost seven months, and it is over ten months in some centres. The RSA does not seem to be planning for the future or ensuring it keeps up with the numbers because the wait lists are increasing all the time. This is badly affecting students and young adults. There has been an increase in the number of unaccompanied drivers being caught by the Garda. We cannot condone driving unaccompanied but many of these people feel they have no option because they must get to their work, the location of their apprenticeship or their place of study and because they have no way of getting there, they take their chances and drive while they await a driving test.

The RSA has stated it aims to recruit 200 testers but is that a sufficient number? At present, there are 130 testers and if 70 people are recruited, the number of testers will increase to 200. I understand 13 testers are in training. Will 70 testers be trained? Who is to say that when people have been trained they will take up the position? The last time there was a recruitment drive, many of those who completed the training did not take up a position. To combat that, the terms and conditions are better this time. I hope all the trainees will take up the role but there is no guarantee. Has the RSA taken into account the number of testers who will retire in the next short while?

The wait time in Cavan is approximately five months. Last night, a parent contacted me and told me her son had applied in March but will not get a test until the end of August. She told me he has got a job for the summer which requires a driver's licence so he will be unable to take up that job. A private company has introduced an app that informs people of any test cancellations in an area. The mother told me her son bought the app for €15 and installed it on his phone but there is a queuing time of an hour to be notified of a cancellation. That option is not working either. I do not know why it takes a private company to do this. The RSA should inform people of cancellations and maintain a list.

As a number of Senators mentioned, there are over 2,000 driving instructors in this country. They are knowledgeable as regards the rules of the road and the driving test marking scheme. With very little training, they could be asked to do tests a couple of days a week and they are willing to do so. That is one way to deal with the huge backlog in driving tests.

I will mention a related matter, although it differs slightly from the issue of waiting times, namely, people returning from living abroad who want to transfer their driving licence to an Irish one. I have mentioned this issue before. People who want to change their driving licence from an Australian one to an Irish have been told there is a wait time of between three and five months. This means they cannot drive or get insurance for that period. That wait time is absolutely ridiculous. It only takes about two weeks in Australia to do the same task. These are people who had full Irish driving licences, went to Australia for a couple of years and transferred their licences so they could drive in Australia. Now that they have returned, they have to wait between three and five months for a procedure that only takes a couple of days in Australia. This matter needs to be addressed.