Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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32. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will provide a breakdown, by centre, of the average driving test waiting list times; to provide a breakdown of the number of applicants waiting to sit their driving test; the number of driving testers employed; the number of testers on part-time versus full-time contracts in each driving test centre, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32990/25]

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that 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 is held by the Authority.

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

More generally, the RSA has published its plan to restore the average national wait time to sit a driver test to 10 weeks by September. The plan is available on the RSA website. While the current average wait time of approximately 20 weeks remains too high, it is positive that progress is being made with the average wait time having reduced from approximately 27 weeks at the end of April.

A key part of the RSA plan is the recruitment and training of more driver testers. The RSA has an approved sanction to recruit up to 70 new driver testers which will provide for an increase in driver testers to 200. The recruitment and training of these testers is ongoing with the first tranche now deployed.