Michael Lowry (Tipperary North, Independent)
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Question 265: To ask the Minister for Transport the number of driving testers currently employed by his Department; the number of vacancies at present; the optimum number of driving testers required to eliminate the year long wait for a driving test; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7370/06]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The current authorised complement of driver testers in my Department, excluding the chief tester and supervisors, is 119. The Public Appointments Service is currently in the process of running a competition to recruit ten testers on a fixed term contract to fill all existing vacancies.

Based on the average number of test applications currently being received the current complement of driver testers is sufficient to deal with the underlying demand. However an exceptional increase in applications in 2003 resulted in a temporary backlog and temporary measures to address this backlog have been developed in consultation with the Department of Finance. These include recruitment of additional contract testers, a bonus scheme for driver testers and the outsourcing of 40,000 tests. The proposed measures have been the subject of a very recent arbitration hearing, the outcome of which will inform future consideration of the resources necessary to deal with the backlog.