Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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103. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to provide a list of each of the driving test centres in the State, in tabular form; the average and longest ongoing waiting times between applying for a test, getting an appointment to book a test, and sitting a test at each centre; and his plans to reduce waiting times. [37622/24]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Under the Road Safety Authority Act 2006, the operation of the National Driver Testing Service is the statutory responsibility of the Road Safety Authority (RSA) and the information requested is held by that organisation. I have therefore referred 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.

To address issues of rising demand and waiting times for a driving test, in March 2023 the Department of Transport conveyed sanction for the RSA to recruit up to 75 additional driver testers on a temporary basis.

More recently, and in line with the conditions set out in the 2023 sanction, the RSA submitted a business case to the Department in June 2024 regarding long-term, permanent staffing needs for the service to cater to current and future demand. The Department conveyed sanction the beginning of September for 70 additional driver testing posts on a permanent basis, bringing the permanent sanction to 200. This is double the sanctioned permanent headcount in June 2022, which was 100 testers. As part of this sanction, my officials have requested that a plan is put in place to restore waiting times to the service level agreement of 10 weeks as soon as possible.

The Deputy may wish to know that the RSA has recently started publishing 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. This information can be accessed at the following link: data.cso.ie/product/rsadts .