Sarah O'Reilly (Aontú)

I thank the Minister of State for coming in. I raised this issue in 2023 on Cavan County Council. The driving test wait times in Cavan were shocking. A huge number of young people in rural parts of the country rely on private transport to get to and from college, training, football and jobs. I myself have a big lump of a lad who is 22 years of age and his mammy is dropping him off to rugby training. They are well fit and well capable but they still have to wait a huge amount of time to get their licence. When I raised this back in February 2023, the wait time in Cavan was 18 weeks. In April 2023, we received a reply from the Road Safety Authority to say there were 75 additional new instructors hired and this would help to clear the backlog and reduce the waiting times. I am seeing in the newspapers the exact same thing about the 75 additional driving instructors. Are these new driving instructors or are they old driving instructors? Are they driving instructors who were recruited in 2023 or are they only starting out now to actually test? Two years later in Cavan, our waiting list is 26 weeks to sit a driving test. Since 2022, there has been a 60% increase in the country in the number of people waiting to sit their tests. The issue here is supply and demand. We do not have the number of permanent driving instructors to address the backlog.

People in rural areas have no public transport. They need permits, they need to be driving, and they need to be independent. We need a direct response from the Road Safety Authority as to what measures they are putting in place to address this serious situation. I want confirmation from the Minister of State on the proposed new driving instructors. What is the timeline for when they are expected to be in place and actually doing tests?