Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 10 Oct 2002

Vol. 555 No. 1

Written Answers. - Driving Tests.

Bernard Allen

Ceist:

132 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Transport the number of people who are awaiting driving tests in each area of the country; the length of the waiting time; the number of testers in each centre to date as compared to January 2001; and the number of provisional licences in existence. [17698/02]

Minister for Transport (Mr. Brennan)

On waiting times at each driving test centre, I refer the Deputy to Question No. 110 of 10 October 2002.

The most recent statistics on numbers waiting at each test centre are set out in the following table. Some 54,337 applicants are on the waiting list, of these 22,441 applicants have been scheduled for a test, 9,898 are currently not available for a test and 21,998 applicants are awaiting a test appointment. The table also shows the number of testers at each headquarter centre presently and at 1 January 2001. An estimated 325,000 provisional licences were current at 31 December 2001.

Test Centre	Applicants Awaiting a Driving Test on 16 September 2002	Testers Headquartered1 January 2001-08 October 2002
Finglas	5,141	1,517
Dundalk	1,458
Mullingar	820
Navan	1,870	11
Raheny	3,524	1,010
Churchtown/Rathgar	5,513	1,715
Gorey	653
Naas	2,335	22
Tullamore	613
Wicklow	993
Tallaght	3,907	611
Athlone	449	22
Birr	446
Castlebar	1,258	43
Clifden	187
Ennis	397	22
Galway	1,479	46
Loughrea	563	12
Roscommon	544
Tuam	593
Ballina	568
Buncrana	299
Carrick on Shannon	602	11
Cavan	841	22
Donegal	523
Letterkenny	790	33
Longford	520
Monaghan	598	11
Sligo	760	23
Carlow	917	11
Clonmel	727	12
Dungarvan	622
Kilkenny	890	33
Nenagh	346
Portlaoise	639	11
Thurles	392
Tipperary	325
Waterford	1,295	43
Wexford	1,122	44
Cork	3,158	1,314
Killarney	674	11
Kilrush	237

Test Centre	Applicants Awaiting a Driving Test on 16 September 2002	Testers Headquartered1 January 2001-08 October 2002
Limerick	1,424	65
Mallow	755
Newcastle West	686
Shannon	421
Skibbereen	710
Tralee	753	22
Total	54,337	109,117