Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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72. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the reason for the significant driving test backlog in a test centre in County Waterford (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22289/25]

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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73. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the measures he is taking to address the significant backlog of those waiting for a driving test in a test centre in County Waterford (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22290/25]

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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74. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the breakdown of current wait times for driving test centres in County Waterford; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22291/25]

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 72, 73 and 74 together.

Under the Road Safety Authority Act 2006, the Road Safety Authority (RSA) has statutory responsibility for the National Driver Testing Service. This includes all application and scheduling matters. As such, the information requested relating to the Waterford test centres is held by the Authority.

I have referred the Deputy's questions 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.

Pending this response, I acknowledge that current waiting times for driving tests 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. I met with the RSA last week to discuss this issue and instructed the Authority to return in two weeks with sustainable proposals which will provide a faster resumption to the service level agreement of 10-weeks. 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.The recruitment process is underway, with the first tranche of new testers now being deployed into service. As additional testers enter the system, testing capacity will increase and progress should be seen on reducing waiting times in the months ahead.As a condition of the sanction given in September, the RSA was required to put a plan in place to restore the 10-week waiting time target as soon as possible. When this plan was first put forward by the RSA, it envisaged a return to the target by November 2025. This is not acceptable given the level of delays already being suffered by learner drivers. I have instructed the RSA to review the plan and identify further measures that will bring forward the date for achieving the target.

The Deputy may wish to know that driver testing is 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 driver testing booking system has also 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.

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 testing capacity by test centre. This information is available at the following link: .