Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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501. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he is aware of the long wait times in Navan for an invitation to complete a driving test (details supplied); the measures being taken to address this issue; and the reason there is such a difference in timelines from Navan. [20600/25]

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, and information specific to Navan is held by the Authority. I have referred the Deputy's question 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.

Pending this more detailed response, I acknowledge that current waiting times are far in excess of what is acceptable, however, I would like to assure the Deputy that measures have been taken to address the issue.

To support the RSA in increasing testing capacity and improving service delivery, 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.

As a condition of sanction, the RSA was required to put a plan in place to restore the 10-week waiting time target as soon as possible. I understand that the recruitment process is well underway, with the first tranche of new testers being deployed into service this month. As additional testers enter the system, testing capacity will increase and I expect that we will begin to see progress on reducing waiting times in the months ahead.

The Deputy may wish to know that 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 these appointments available for candidates to book on the MyRoadSafety portal.

Driver testing is also offered on Saturdays where driver testers are available to do overtime and there are also additional morning and evening test slots offered where daylight allows. This has been the case since the current backlog in driving tests started to build up.

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: .