Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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468. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport further to Parliamentary Question No. 136 of 10 March 2025, the meaning of the statement "measures have been taken to address the issue" in relation to the unacceptable current driving testing waiting times. [20163/25]

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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As stated in Parliamentary Question no 136 of 10 April 2024, under the Road Safety Authority Act 2006, the Road Safety Authority (RSA) has statutory responsibility for the National Driver Testing Service. Neither I nor my officials are involved in the delivery of the service at an operational level.

As detailed in my earlier response, the main measure taken to support the RSA in the delivery of the service is sanctioning of driver testers to increase the capacity of the service and its ability to meet growing demand. In September 2024, my Department sanctioned an additional 70 permanent positions for driver testers. This increases the total permanent sanction for testers to 200, which represents a doubling of permanent posts since June 2022. The first tranche of new testers is expected to enter live testing this month and additional tranches will be onboarded across the summer, progressively increasing capacity and reducing waiting times.

Prior to the September 2024 permanent sanction, in March 2023 the RSA requested temporary sanction for 40, 60 or 75 testers. My Department sanctioned 75 such posts, a greater number than the RSA had requested, later that month. This temporary sanction was the correct decision at that time, ensuring that permanent staffing decisions were not taken while the service was experiencing post-pandemic distortions and creating capacity to deal with immediate demand while a longer-term assessment of capacity requirements was conducted. Under this temporary sanction, significant progress was made between August 2023 and April 2024, with wait times halving from 30 weeks to 15 weeks.

The progress that was made under the previous sanction, before the loss of testing capacity as testers left the service for various reasons, gives us confidence that the additional capacity now entering the service, on a permanent basis, will deliver improved waiting times on a sustained basis going forward.

On the operational side, the RSA are placing no restrictions on voluntary overtime by driver testers within the EU Working Time Directive requirements. There is extensive working of overtime by the existing cohort of testers on Saturdays and through additional morning and evening slots where daylight allows.

Finally, since late 2023, the driver testing booking system has been updated to allow for any unused test slots to be made available for candidates to take up at short notice. The RSA now make any such appointments available for candidates to book on the MyRoadSafety portal on a daily basis.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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469. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the number of additional driver testers hired in each month, over the past six months, to address the unacceptable current driving testing waiting times. [20164/25]

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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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. This includes the recruitment and employment of driver testers. I have therefore referred the Deputy’s question to the RSA for direct, detailed reply regarding staffing levels and the current recruitment campaign. I would ask the Deputy to contact my office if a response has not been received within ten days.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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470. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the steps taken to ensure the Road Safety Authority issues accurate waiting time targets more reflective of the reality of the current waiting times for different centres, rather the totally unreal ones issued at present. [20165/25]

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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471. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the average wait time for each driver test centre for test recipients who waited until they were invited rather than via short notice. [20166/25]

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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472. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to provide the 90th percentile wait time, the max wait time seen by 90% of the test recipients, for each driver test centre for test recipients who waited until they were invited rather than via short notice. [20167/25]

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 470, 471 and 472 together.

Under the Road Safety Authority Act 2006, the Road Safety Authority (RSA) has statutory responsibility for the National Driver Testing Service and as such the detailed information requested in relation to the waiting times is held by the them.

I have referred the Deputy's questions to the RSA for direct, detailed reply and I would ask the Deputy to contact my office if a response has not been received within ten days.

The Deputy may wish to note that the RSA 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. This information is available at the following link: .