227. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Transport the average wait time at present for a driving test; the steps being taken by him to authorise the recruitment of more driver testers to reduce these unacceptable waiting times; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44754/24]

228. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Transport the number of driving test centres that do not operate on a five-day service each week; the location of each of these, and average waiting time for a test in each of them; whether the waiting time in these centres is above the target wait time before which he will authorise the recruitment of more testers so the target waiting time for this service will be achieved; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44755/24]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 227 and 228 together.

Under the Road Safety Authority Act 2006, the operation of the National Driver Testing Service is the statutory responsibility of the Road Safety Authority (RSA) this includes all application and scheduling matters. Given the RSA's responsibility in this matter, I have referred the Deputy's questions to the RSA for direct, detailed reply. Please contact my private office if a response is not received within ten days

To address issues of increasing demand and lengthening waiting times for a driving test, in March 2023 the Department of Transport conveyed sanction for the RSA to recruit up to an additional 75 driver testers on a temporary basis.

In line with the conditions set out in the 2023 sanction, the RSA submitted a business case to the Department in June 2024 regarding long-term, permanent staffing needs for the service to cater to current and future demand. The Department conveyed sanction the beginning of September for 70 additional driver testing posts on a permanent basis, bringing the permanent sanction to 200. This is more than double the sanctioned headcount in June 2022, which was 100 testers.

As a condition of sanction for these additional resources, my officials have requested that a plan is put in place to restore waiting times to the service level agreement of 10 weeks as soon as possible.

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.