Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 1 February 2024
22. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Transport to provide an update regarding the number of driving testers recruited in the past 12 months and for those testers on short-term contracts to be retained. [3929/24]
Amharc ar fhreagra76. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Transport what actions are being taken to address the long waiting times in many driving test centres. [3928/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 22 and 76 together.
As the Deputy may be aware, under the Road Safety Authority Act 2006, the RSA has statutory responsibility for the National Driving Test service. As the employer of driver testers, contractual terms are a matter for the RSA. However, I am informed that at the end of 2023 there were 177 testers employed by the Authority.
The service has been under significant pressure to meet unprecedented demand. Anticipating ongoing demand pressures and following a request for additional resources last year, my Department gave approval for the recruitment of up to 75 additional driver testers. This brings the current total number of sanctioned driver tester posts to 205, which is more than double the 100 sanctioned testing posts in June 2022.
The first tranche of new recruits were deployed last September and the national average waiting time for invitation to test has been decreasing since then. By the end of 2023 there was an increase of 41 driver testers across the driver testing service, with additional testing capacity deployed to the geographical areas with the longest waiting times and highest demand for tests.
Sanction remains in place for the Authority to increase the number of testers to further alleviate current pressures on the service. My Department is working closely with the Authority to monitor demand and capacity requirements of the driver testing service to ensure it meets the agreed service level of average wait times of 10 weeks, which the Authority expects to achieve by mid-2024.
