Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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229. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the reason it has been impossible for individuals to obtain driving tests for category C and D licenses in Ennis, County Clare since July 2025; the means by which he proposes to address this matter; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48399/25]

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. Neither I nor my officials are involved in the service at an operational level. Given the RSA's responsibility in this matter, I have referred the Deputy's question to the RSA for direct response. Please contact my office if a reply is not received within ten days.

Pending this response, the Deputy will be aware that I have made resolving driving test wait times a priority since taking office. Due to the more advanced nature of the work, there is a high level of overlap between experienced testers who are able to deliver tests outside of Category B and testers who are able to train new recruits. As the RSA has accelerated its recruitment and deployment of driver testers in recent months, this led to a temporary reduction of testing capacity within all testing categories but is not the result of reassignment of testers to Category B testing at the cost of other learners.

In anticipation of a temporary loss in capacity to deliver non-Category B tests, the RSA assigned additional capacity to such tests during the month of May before commencing its accelerated training and deployment programme. In that month, just over 1,100 Category C and D tests were delivered nationwide. While there was a reduction in such tests conducted in June and July as a result of training, with experienced testers released from training duties across August, the aggregate number of Category C and D tests carried out last month was 1,332, an increase of 462 (+53%) from July. The RSA has indicated that the wait time for non-Category B tests is expected to reduce to 10 weeks this month.

As of early September, a total of 195 permanent testers are employed, with with work underway to reach full operational capacity of 200. This represents a significant increase from the 151 testers in place at the beginning of the year, a figure which included individuals on fixed-term contracts. Furthermore, as the onboarding process concludes, testing capacity previously allocated to training activities will be reallocated to the delivery of driving tests.