Matt Carthy
Ceist:125. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Transport if he will facilitate the recruitment of additional driving testers to address the existing backlog. [44065/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraThursday, 16 September 2021
Ceisteanna (125)
Freagraí scríofa
In order to deal with the driving test backlog, the Road Safety Authority received sanction to hire 40 new temporary testers, in addition to 36 they were sanctioned to retain or rehire in 2020. These new testers have completed their training and are now conducting live tests since July 2021. Sanction has also been granted to recruit a further 40. At this point I do not believe that there is a shortage of testers.
Driving testers carried out 8 tests each per day before the pandemic. This was reduced to 5 on reopening in summer of 2020, and later increased to 6. The RSA hopes to be able to increase this in the near future to 7, subject to health circumstances. This will make a significant impact on the RSA's efforts to address backlogs.