Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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302. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the action plan to reduce driving test wait times to ten weeks nationally; to provide a breakdown of waiting test time per centre; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [61393/25]

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. As such, the information requested is held by the Authority. I have therefore 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 reducing overall driving test wait times has been one of my key priorities since taking office. To that end, in May I directed the RSA to produce and publish a service recovery plan to meet the 10-week average national waiting time target by September, which was achieved. The reduction in the average wait times represents a significant improvement on the 27 average wait time at the end of April.

The latest information available to me is that currently the average national waiting time for a driving test is currently at 11.5 weeks. This slight increase above target is a short-term impact as a result of merging the test and re-test lists to ensure that all customers have the same experience when utilising the RSA self service system. The RSA anticipates that this change will have worked through the system in the coming weeks and that the 10-week target will be met at the end of November.

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: https://data.cso.ie/product/RSADTS.

Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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303. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to provide an update on the enhancement of the practical driving test; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [61394/25]

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.

Given the RSA's responsibility in this matter, I have referred the Deputy's question to the RSA for direct, detailed response. Please contact my office if a reply is not received within ten days.

Pending this detailed response, the Deputy will be aware that in July this year I published the Phase 2 Road Safety Action Plan of the Road Safety Strategy 2021-2030. The Phase 2 plan focuses on the delivery of 12 primary actions that have the potential for truly transformative change. Each of these actions will be delivered through partnership and collaborative working with a range of road safety stakeholders. Under Action 7A of this Plan the Road Safety Authority will 'enhance the learning to drive programme based on evidence from international best practice, in tandem with improvements in the driving test'.

To inform its work in this area the RSA is currently conducting a comprehensive review of the driver testing curriculum. The objective of this work is to ensure the service is fit for purpose, future-proofed, and capable of adapting to advancements in vehicle technology. Work on this review is underway, and it will take into account international best practice in this area and will inform the development of recommendations designed to enhance driver education in Ireland. Once the review is completed this will contribute to the full delivery by the RSA of Action 7A of the Phase 2 Action Plan.

In addition, the RSA this year has updated the practical driving test through the removal of Grade 1 faults. This is currently being implemented on a pilot basis for 12 months. The pilot phase will allow the RSA to monitor and evaluate the change within a controlled framework, ensuring that any long-term decisions made are evidence based and considerate of all potential impacts.