Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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80. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if there are plans to use driving instructors from semi-State bodies, for example Dublin Bus, to help clear the backlog of driving lessons and driver tests. [14199/21]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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The Road Safety Authority is currently examining a number of strategies to increase the number of driving tests within current health constraints with an eye to resuming wider testing after level 5.

These strategies include increasing the number of testing staff to help reduce and, over time, eliminate the testing backlog that has developed as a result of the pandemic. To this end, my Department acted in 2020 to approve the rehire of 36 temporary driver testers whose contracts had expired.  The Department  subsequently approved the hiring of an additional 40 temporary testers for 22 months. 

I must clarify to the Deputy, however, that driving instructors and driver testers carry out two very different roles in the driver education process and are subject to entirely different training and certification requirements.  A driver instructor licence in no way qualifies the holder to work as a driver tester. Indeed, the driver education system in this country is underpinned by a long-standing principle whereby Approved Driving Instructors (ADIs) teach and prepare students for the driving test while RSA Qualified Driver Testers then assess the students' level of competency while remaining completely impartial. The strict separation of these roles  is crucially important to guaranteeing the integrity of the driving test.

In response to the Deputy's suggestion that instructors currently employed in the semi-State sector be somehow redeployed to teach private students after the lifting of level 5 restrictions, I should clarify that driving instruction in Ireland is delivered in the main by private individuals and schools operating as entirely independent businesses, all of whom are solely responsible for their own recruitment practices. While any holder of a valid driver instructor licence is entitled in principle to offer tuition for financial reward, the hypothetical decision to leave semi-State employment in order to teach private students is a matter between the individual and his or her employer.