Almost 2,400 learner drivers failed to attend for their driving test appointments in the first four months of this year, it has emerged.
This brings to 17,500 the number of unusable driving test slots since January 2023 because of “no show” candidates, which means the Road Safety Authority (RSA) received almost €1.5 million in non-refundable test application fees.
It has also emerged that there are no driver testers in 12 of the State’s 57 car test centres. Currently, 137 driving testers are in place at 45 centres. The RSA is recruiting and training new testers and expects to have 200 in place by the end of the year.
The RSA has said that while some test centres do not have driving testers, this does not infer that these centres are not being serviced. “The service is managed to balance available skilled resources across all locations,” the authority said.
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Across the 57 test centres, 6,440 learner drivers failed to show up for their test in 2023. This increased to 8,663 last year.
Figures released by the RSA to Fine Gael TD Emer Currie show 2,387 candidates did not show for their test scheduled in the first four months of this year, having failed to cancel in advance of the test.
Ms Currie said no-shows this year are working out at 600 a month. “That level of waste should be re-examined when so may people are desperate to take their tests,” she said.
“It also brings into focus the bizarre situation where learner drivers can miss driving tests but continue to reapply to renew their learner permits.”
Once a learner has written confirmation that they applied for their test, they can then apply to renew their learner permit.
The Dublin West TD added: “The RSA should be clamping down on waste and workarounds. I’m not sure we are seeing the urgency we should if people are gaming the system.”
Chair of road safety campaign group Parc Susan Gray said that since the beginning of 2023 up to the end of April, the authority “has received €1,486,650 in payments from the no-shows”.
“We believe the RSA are rewarding these drivers for not showing up by issuing a new permit at a cost of €85, which will last a year. Then the learner will be back the following year looking for another renewal for €85.”
A learner who completes the test and fails can renew their permit for two years, while a no-show has to renew annually.
“These no-shows know it doesn’t matter to the RSA if they fail to turn up for their scheduled test date as the RSA will continue to renew their permits every year.”
She added that the Department of Transport is working on secondary legislation, which does not have to go through the Dáil and Seanad, to limit the number of learner permits issued to candidates who fail to show for driving tests.
But this cannot be done until the Minister for Transport receives the RSA’s implementation plans to close the loophole, said Ms Gray.
The new testers being recruited will have permanent contracts. In a previous recruitment campaign, a number of testers were on temporary contracts, which adversely affected waiting times when their contracts ended.
Ms Gray said the lack of testers is “very alarming”. For example, Buncrana, the only test centre to cover the Inishowen peninsula in Co Donegal, has no driver tester, she said.
“We don’t have much confidence in the RSA system that these test centres will be adequately resourced because effectively they will have to take testers from another centre.”
Ms Currie said she is looking forward to seeing the RSA appear before the Oireachtas Committee on Transport in the coming weeks to explain why 12 out of 57 driving test centres do not have any testers.
The 12 test centres with no driving testers are: Charlestown, Maple House in Mulhuddart, and Killester, Dublin; Buncrana, Co Donegal; Clifden, Co Gaway; Talbot Hotel, Co Carlow; Mallow and Skibbereen, Co Cork; O’Loughlin Gaels centre, Co Kilkenny; Kilrush and Shannon, Co Clare; Longford; and Portlaoise.
RSA chief operating officer Brendan Walsh said the authority “will have employed 91 people on permanent contracts to bring the number of permanent driver testers up to the sanctioned 200″.
