Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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182. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will report on measures to improve waiting times for in-care driving tests; the average waiting time for each testing centre in March of 2026, and in each of the past five years, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23192/26]

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, including all testing and scheduling matters. 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, detailed response. Please contact my office if a reply is not received within ten days.

Since taking office, reducing driver test waiting times has been a key priority for me. In May 2025, I directed the RSA to produce and publish a service recovery plan to meet the 10-week average national waiting time target by September 2025, which the RSA achieved.

The latest information available to me from the RSA indicates that as of 21 March the average national waiting time for a driving test was 11.7 weeks. The RSA is continuing to work to reduce wait times to the agreed 10 week target however, the current wait time marks a significant improvement on the 27-week average wait time in April 2025.

In September 2024, my Department conveyed sanction for 70 additional driver testing posts on a permanent basis, bringing the permanent sanction to 200, which represents a doubling of permanent posts since June 2022. As of 21 March, 194 testers were in place, which marks a significant increase on the 151 available at the beginning of 2025. The RSA is working to reach its full complement of 200 testers subject to the next successful training and onboarding of new recruits.

The RSA has also indicated that overtime and bank holiday testing will continue in 2026. I would also highlight that, to manage demand effectively at national level, testers, although formally assigned to specific centres, are routinely deployed to other locations as required.

In addition a new test centre opened in Mitchelstown in December and I am informed that new test centres in Drogheda and Sandyford will be operational shortly. This should assist in reducing average wait times in those areas.

Finally, the driver testing booking system now makes available cancelled test slots for candidates to take up at short notice. I would encourage learner drivers awaiting a test to monitor this channel, which may provide an opportunity to book an earlier testing date.

The Deputy may also wish to note that detailed statistics for the average waiting times at each test centre are made available on the CSO website on a monthly basis and can be accessed via the following link: .