Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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83. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the number of people currently waiting to sit their driving test in the Dublin area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20357/23]

Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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84. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if any of the recently announced additional driving instructor posts will be allocated to Dublin to alleviate the wait times for driving tests; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20358/23]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 83 and 84 together.

The Road Safety Authority (RSA) has statutory responsibility for all aspects of the National Driving Test service.  This includes test applications and scheduling matters. I have therefore referred the specific part of Deputy's 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

On the broader issue of driver testing delays, the service has been under significant pressure to meet unprecedented demand, which is up 28% on 2021 figures. This increase in demand for driving tests and the time to invitation for learner drivers has a number of contributing factors which include an increase in learner permits in circulation, increased capacity in the Driver Theory Test and an increase in Approved Driving Instructors capacity to deliver lessons to learner drivers.

The Authority has reviewed the capacity of the driver testing service to meet demand and following a request for additional resources in March 2023, my Department has given approval for the recruitment of up to 75 driver testers. This is in addition to the 30 testers who were previously sanctioned in July 2022 and which have been fully deployed since the end of March 2023. This brings the total number of sanctioned driver tester posts to just over 200.

It is expected that once these additional 75 driver testers are recruited, trained and deployed, the backlog for driver testing services will be actively managed such that it will start to reduce from October 2023 and agreed service levels should resume by early to mid 2024. The additional testers will be assigned to fill current vacancies and otherwise allocated to centres with the highest demand for tests. The recruitment campaign for the posts has already been commenced by the Authority.