I also wish to pay my respects to Tom Burke. I remember starting in politics and him making me walk out and back in repeatedly. Whatever type of embarrassment I first felt in front of a camera, he definitely wore it off me after a few of those struts up and down.

I want to speak about care leavers. Returning to the Chamber this week ahead of the budget, I cannot help but think of many young people across the country who are also returning to further education in the last few weeks, or beginning their journey in it for the first time. It is an exciting time but also one which brings many challenges for young people. First and foremost, care leavers carry the trauma of their pre-care and care histories with them into adult life. This trauma does not simply disappear upon reaching adulthood but continues to impact care-experienced people across the lifespan. We must consider the impact this trauma has on a young person trying to progress through further education and offer trauma-informed support to assist them in thriving in these new learning environments. Second, many care leavers do not have access to the traditional family support networks that many other young people do. While some care-experienced young people will continue to live with or receive support from their foster families, others will be living completely independently shortly after their 18th birthday. In transitioning from being in care to being in after-care, young people lose access to many important figures in their lives, such as foster carers, care staff, social workers and therapeutic support staff. After-care workers continue to offer support to young care leavers but this is contingent on the young person's ability to maintain this voluntary working relationship or his or her ability to maintain an education or training placement. Additionally, the availability of the support is often affected by the after-care workers' caseload, which ultimately means different young people in different parts of the country receive different levels of support. Many of these challenges interfere with a young care leaver successfully navigating this important life stage. We must do better for them. We must ensure adequate support is provided to our care-experienced young people to help them break the cycle, thrive in education and training and live happy and healthy lives.

I hope to see some supports or resources for care leavers in the budget. I ask the Leader that we continue holding a debate on the situation for those living in care or who have experienced care.

I want to raise the issue of driver test delays. I appreciate it has been raised before in the House but it remains a significant issue with more than 100,000 people currently waiting for a test, according to the latest figures from the Road Safety Authority, RSA. I want acknowledge the Government has taken action by hiring additional testers and opening ten temporary testing centres but it is simply not enough. It is a huge issue in Galway and across the county. However, there is also a backlog with the driver theory test, with more than 120,000 people waiting for it. This will obviously have a very significant impact, in terms of increasing the number of people waiting for driver tests, when that backlog of in excess of 120,000 people currently waiting for the theory test is cleared. This needs to be resolved and there is only one way to do so, namely, increasing the number of tests being held on a weekly basis. In addition, serious consideration must be given to introducing weekend testing. This will obviously require the hiring of additional testers, a recruitment process involving advertising positions and holding interviews, and will take time. There is no point waiting for another two months when we know exactly what will happen in terms of the number of people waiting and the length of time they are going to have to wait. It is a significant problem in Galway, where there are more than 10,000 students between NUIG and GMIT and they are travelling longer distances because of the accommodation crisis. As such, there are a number of issues. In the grand scheme of things, the cost of this will be a drop in the ocean but it is something that will make an immediate tangible impact on the lives of thousands of young people, particularly those who are naturally not legally allowed to drive alone and are having to pay significantly higher premiums.

I would be grateful if the Leader could contact the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and request he appear before the House at his earliest opportunity.