Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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181. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will review procedures (details supplied) regarding driving licences; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21752/25]

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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The Road Safety Authority has statutory responsibility for the National Driver Licence Service, including licencing procedure matters. My Department does not have access to individual driving licence exchange applications and may not intervene in that process. Accordingly, I have referred this matter 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.

Please note that the time taken to process driving licence exchange applications can vary. The licence for exchange must be verified by the jurisdiction that issued it and completion of the process is dependent on the response time from the corresponding licensing authority.

The issuing of a temporary licence would still require verification of the original licence. Therefore, this would offer no time advantage over issuing a new licence.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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182. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the number of driver testers employed in each test centre in the country for each of the past three years; and the number of vacancies currently. [21823/25]

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 the information requested relating to the employment of driver testers and current vacancies is held by the Authority.

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

The Deputy may also 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 driver testers by test centre and county. This information is available at the following link:

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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183. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the number of additional hours overtime driver testing inspectors have availed of and were paid for in 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21824/25]

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 the information requested is held by the Authority.

I have referred the Deputy's question to the RSA for direct reply and 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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184. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the list of the steps taken by his Department, and the RSA in each of the past three years to address the increasing driver testing waiting list. [21825/25]

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 operation of the National Driver Testing Service. I acknowledge that current waiting times are far in excess of what is acceptable and I would like to assure the Deputy that measures have been taken to address the issue.

In March 2023, my Department sanctioned the recruitment of 75 additional driver testers on fixed-term contracts to address issues of rising demand and waiting times for a driving test.

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.

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.