The Taoiseach has acknowledged what he has described as the “unacceptable delays at the moment” when it comes to driving tests.
Leo Varadkar told the Dáil that people were waiting up to a year to get their driving test.
But he pledged that the government was working to address these delays.
“We will get on top of that. We have hired new driver testers and estimate, by the middle of next year, that the wait time will be back to approximately 10 weeks,” he said.
“It will fall between now and then. It is something that we acknowledge needs a lot of work,” he added.
However the Rural Independent Group of TDs believes the delays in driver testing services “are not receiving the required attention from the government” and that these delays have now “reached a critical juncture”.
The group put forward a Dáil Motion today (Wednesday, October 18) to highlight what it described as the “alarming long waiting times for driving times across various regions in Ireland”.
Driving test wait times
According to the leader of the Rural Independent Group, Deputy Mattie McGrath, latest information from the Road Safety Authority (RSA) shows that the waiting times for driving tests “have reached an all-time high, with an average waiting period of 30.4 weeks”.
He said in some regions “the waiting period is as long as 51 weeks” which Deputy McGrath said was causing significant distress for thousands of learners.
In its motion, the group outlined that the number of eligible learner drivers “awaiting an invitation to book their driving tests has increased by 61% over the past year, reaching a total of 71,554 individuals – up from 44,545 in October 2022”.
According to the Rural Independent Group, the delay in driver testing services is having a particular impact on rural communities.
In its motion the group stated: “In rural Ireland, where multiple public transport options are not readily available, the impact of driving test delays is felt more acutely, with the situation now hampering employment opportunities and college attendance for young people living in these regions.”
Deputy McGrath said the logjam in securing a driving test is now creating a situation that is “detrimental” to some people’s livelihoods.
In its motion, the Rural Independent Group called on the government to put more resources in place to deal with the surge in demand for driving tests.
Deputy McGrath said the group wants an “immediate development and implementation of a strategic plan that will work towards achieving the RSA’s official 10-week waiting period target”.
The Rural Independent Group also urged in its motion that public bodies, including the RSA should “offer the option of paying for services using cash without incurring penalties”.