Applications to sit a driving test have significantly outstripped the number of tests actually conducted over each of the last four years, according to new figures supplied by the Road Safety Authority.
Last year, despite carrying out 122,599 tests during normal hours and a further 36,142 during evenings and weekends under the terms of a special overtime scheme, the numbers of tests conducted fell far short of the 216,880 applications.
This pattern has been repeated during each of the last four years, during which the number of tests carried out fell each year, before rising - with the benefit of the overtime scheme - last year.
In 2005, some 177,216 drivers applied for a test but just 137,500 were carried out. The figures also showed that the number of driver testers fell from 119 in 2003 to 115 in 2005, before rising last year to 124 personnel.
The disparity between the number of learner drivers applying for a test and how many are tested explains the long-standing waiting list which this month stands at just under 140,000 people. This total does not include another group of approximately 250,000 provisional drivers who are not awaiting a test. Chief executive of the Road Safety Authority (RSA) Noel Brett told The Irish Times that the strength of the driver tester cadre had recently been increased to 127, with 10 new testers starting training next month.
As a result of this increased capacity, Mr Brett said he expected RSA driver testers to carry out 196,500 tests, with SGS Ireland carrying out a further 40,000 and that coupled with additional tests from the private sector the driver testing service would be able to meet demand this year.
"This year we are going to do it differently. RSA testers will do 196,500 tests as part of normal capacity. And bear in mind I am in post-tender negotiations with a preferred provider for a minimum of 100,000 tests.
"The demand planning has been done, the demand forecasting has been done. I'm forecasting that I am going to get 250,000 applications this year.
"I am confident that I have the resources in place now and that we can deal with the demand."
Mr Brett conceded that late cancellations of driving tests remained an issue with one in five of all tests - or around 1,500 a week - not being carried out for that reason.
"About one in five tests are cancelled. Either we cancel it, usually due to sickness of a tester, or the client doesn't turn up, so we would urge people to notify us if they cannot take their test. The other reason for cancellations is when the vehicle is not road worthy, or insured."
Labour Party transport spokeswoman Roisin Shortall said the Department of Transport had "completely underestimated the demand that is there for tests. The Minister seemed to approach this on the basis that there is a bulge that is out of the way."
She said the anomaly that allowed drivers to reach their fifth provisional licence remained and said this was an indictment of the Government's failure to give road safety adequate priority.
"People can still apply for a test, simply renew their licence and cancel or ignore their test and keep driving untaught and untested for years and years. It is unbelievable that that can still happen."
Ms Shortall said the Minister for Transport, Martin Cullen, had said waiting times for a driving test would be cut to eight weeks by the middle of 2007. "He has utterly failed and I would be concerned that he is going to make another big announcement on outsourcing in the run up to the election to disguise this failure."
