It will be almost another year before waiting times for driving tests fall to the target of 10 weeks, even with the addition of 75 new testers, Minister of State at the Department of Transport Jack Chambers has said.
Mr Chambers said the waiting times were “completely unacceptable” and left too many young people in limbo “waiting to get to college or go to work and just go about their days”.
During interviews on Newstalk and RTÉ, the Fianna Fáil TD said the 75 testers would be recruited during a three-month process and would then need two months’ training, meaning they would not be in place until October.
By the end of the first quarter of next year, he said, the waiting time for applicants to sit the test should be down to the Road Safety Authority (RSA) target of 10 weeks.
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At the beginning of this year there were some 50,000 learner drivers eligible to sit their test but were either waiting for appointments to become available or had just received an invitation to book one.
In the case of Westside in Galway, would-be applicants could expect to wait 39 weeks for an invitation, bringing them into early September, figures published in The Irish Times show.
[ Driving test waiting times over 30 weeks for learners in six centresOpens in new window ]
“We are trying to find a solution that really puts a sustainable number of testers in place so that we can address the increased levels of demand we’ve seen over the last couple of years,” Mr Chambers said.
“We were doing 3,000 tests per week in October of last year. We’re now at over 4,000. With the 75 additional testers, we will put in around 6,000 tests per week. So there will be progress for many people that are waiting 21 weeks this year but it’ll be early next year before we get back to our average wait time of ten weeks - in quarter one of 2024. I don’t think we’ll be waiting until the middle of next year to see tangible progress made.”
Regarding separate delays with the National Car Testing (NCT) system, which is also under the remit of the RSA, Mr Chambers said it was “totally unacceptable” that waiting times for car tests were now at 30 weeks on average.
He said an arbitration process had commenced between the RSA and Applus, the company that has the contract for NCT centres.
Moves were being made to recruit an additional 55 mechanics which should increase capacity, Mr Chambers said. People had been forced to wait too long for their NCT and they expected a proper service, he added.
“Applus are contracted to provide that service and haven’t provided the level or standard of service that I expect as Minister. And that’s why contract penalties are being applied and there’s an engagement between the Road Safety Authority and Applus. In fact there is a dispute on the contract mechanism.”
He added: “My position is that the penalties should be applied and they should be applied to Applus who aren’t fulfilling their contract.”