Driving test delays in Cavan
Deputy Brendan Smith raised severe waiting times for driving tests in Cavan and the difficulties this caused for rural workers and students. The Tánaiste said extra testers had been sanctioned and recruited, with the average wait still too long.
I have for a considerable length of time been raising the unacceptable delays in getting driving tests in the Cavan test centre. These delays have caused real difficulties for people who need to travel for work or to study and impact adversely on rural communities, such as those throughout County Cavan. If a person were to book a test in the Cavan test centre today, he or she will not receive an invitation for a test until 8 April 2024. It will be the end of that April before that person takes the test. People who booked a test in February and March last are only now receiving notice of their test dates.
I welcome the announcement by the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, of the recruitment of additional driver testers. I again emphasise the absolute need to allocate some of those new recruits to the Cavan centre on a permanent basis. Cavan has one tester in some weeks and perhaps two in other weeks. At other times, such as next week, we have no testers at all. That is not acceptable. We need an adequate complement of driver testers to be permanently assigned to the Cavan test centre. We have endured delays for far too long.
Comment on this
I accept what the Deputy has said. The Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, is very conscious of this issue. As Deputy Brendan Smith knows, sanction was given for the recruitment of 75 additional driver testers, in addition to the 30 permanent testers who were sanctioned in July 2022. As of Friday 6 October, 29 additional testers have joined the Road Safety Authority and are either employed or in training, while another 13 are lined up for November. The net increase anticipated for the organisation by the end of December is 42 personnel.
However, as the Deputy has said, the current average waiting time for a candidate is 28.5 weeks. That is down from 30.4 weeks but is still far above the accepted target in the service level agreement of ten weeks. Demand is up and continues to go up. There are now 5,000 applications per week. Those are 5,000 people per week applying and looking for driving tests. We have to move on this.