Written answers

Tuesday, 28 May 2024

Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport

Driver Test

Photo of Pádraig O'SullivanPádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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134. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the current average waiting time for driving tests in Cork; the progress that has been made in reducing the waiting times; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23597/24]

Photo of Pádraig O'SullivanPádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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135. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the current average waiting time for driving tests conducted through Irish in Cork; the progress that has been made in reducing the waiting time; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23598/24]

Photo of Jack ChambersJack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 134 and 135 together.

Under the Road Safety Authority Act 2006, the Road Safety Authority (RSA) has statutory responsibility for the National Driver Testing Service and the information requested is held by that agency. As such, I have referred the questions to the RSA for direct reply. I would ask the Deputy to contact my office if a response has not been received within ten days. At the end of April, the estimated national average wait time to be invited to sit a driving test was 14.9 weeks. While this is still above the service level agreement target of 10 weeks, significant progress has been made since last August, when the estimated wait time was 30.4 weeks nationally.

Progress in reducing wait times has been achieved primarily through the sanctioning of 75 additional driver tester posts by my Department last March, with the first additional testers entering active service last September. The RSA currently has sanction to employ up to 205 driver testers in total, which is more than double the 100 sanctioned posts in June 2022. To further assist with reducing waiting times, in October last year a change was made to the booking system to allow any unused test slots to be made available for candidates to take up at short notice. If a driving test is cancelled at short notice, the RSA now make this appointment available to the general public on the MyRoadSafety portal.

The Authority has recently started to publish detailed monthly information on the driver testing service on the CSO website, including the breakdown of waiting times and distribution of testing capacity by test centre. I recognise the challenges that excessive waiting times are imposing on people throughout the country and I welcome the Road Safety Authority's commitment to restoring average wait times to the target 10-week level in the summer. My officials are working closely with the Authority to monitor progress towards this goal.

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