The waiting times for driving tests are increasing at my two local centres in Tallaght and Deansgrange, which serve constituents in Dublin South-West. I had a call to my office this morning from a constituent whose son has been waiting over nine months for a test. He represents Ireland in athletics and his father, who works in a hospital, has to accompany him or drive him around the country to races. All his son wants is his independence to drive himself, but he cannot as he is still waiting for his test.

Second, pass rates are very concerning, at just 40.3% in the Tallaght centre and 53% in Dún Laoghaire-Deansgrange, highlighting the urgent need for better support. We know too that there has been a rise in unaccompanied learner drivers and in vehicles being seized. Most tragically, though, 82% of fatal collisions involving learner drivers between 2019 and 2023 involved unaccompanied drivers.

Thank you, Deputy Lahart.

Could we institute a learner driver programme to try to address those really-----

Deputy Lahart, your time is up.

-----appalling figures?

I accept fully the frustrations as articulated by the Deputy in respect of this issue. As far back as September 2024, the Department of Transport sanctioned an additional 70 permanent positions for driver testers and this increases the total permanent posts sanctioned for testers to 200, which is a doubling of permanent posts since June 2022. A recruitment process is under way, with the first tranche of new testers now being deployed into the service. We hope that as additional testers enter the system, testing capacity will increase and progress should be seen in reducing waiting times in the months ahead.

I would be concerned at those pass rates. There needs to be a review of that. Is it overly strict? I do not know. There are a lot of people driving today who, if they were to sit down and do those tests young people are doing today, might not pass. I do not want to be flippant about it but when we are getting a 40% pass rate, something is wrong somewhere.