Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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310. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the date on which driver theory tests will resume; and the number of applicants who are in the backlog for the theory test and the full driving test, respectively. [17575/21]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Waiting list details are held by the Road Safety Authority. I have therefore referred this part of the question to the Authority for direct reply. I would ask the Deputy to contact my office if a response has not been received within ten days

The Driver Theory Test has not been deemed to be an essential service under Level 5 restrictions. The service will remain closed while level 5 restrictions remain in place. I fully appreciate the difficulties thatthis poses and I can assure the Deputy that Theory Tests will resume as soon as it is safe to do so when level 5 restrictions are eased.

The RSA is engaging with its service provider to examine ways of increasing the number of tests within the current health constraints for when services resume. In this regard, the aim is to double capacity at test centres over a three-month period. Subject to decisions on future Covid 19 restrictions, this will mean that additional capacity would be made available in April, May and June 2021.

Normal capacity before the pandemic was approximately 15,000 tests per month. When the service reopened in June 2020, this was increased to 25,000 to deal with the backlog which had developed by that point. Based on the capacity of 25,000 tests per month, the aim is to provide an additional 25,000 tests per month on top of this for the first 3 months of reopening, or a total of 75,000 extra test appointments over the three-month period. This would make substantial inroads into numbers waiting over that time period.

An online driver theory test service called Pro Proctor was trialled in December on a pilot basis for those taking a theory test for trucks and buses. The pilot is now being evaluated and the RSA is committed to extending the service for all theory test types during 2021. There will be a limit on the number of customers that can avail of the service during the initial rollout phase, but the objective is that it should be an option for all theory test customers during later phases of the rollout.

It is important to recognise that there are no quick fixes and that the continuing build-up of applications as the pandemic goes on means that it will take time to return to a normal waiting time.