Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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160.To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the measures that are being undertaken to address the long waiting list for people to do their driving tests; and if he will acknowledge how the delay in this process is costing people job opportunities. [30963/24]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Under the Road Safety Authority Act 2006, the Road Safety Authority (RSA) has statutory responsibility for the National Driver Testing Service.

At the end of June, the estimated national average wait time to be invited to sit a driving test was 15.6 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 in March 2023, 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 this summer. My officials are working closely with the Authority to monitor progress towards this goal.