100,000 extra driving tests to come online in August

From August, learner drivers will be offered the first of 100,000 tests with a private firm as part of a second outsourcing contract to address the current backlog for a driving test.

Unlike the first privatised contract which saw extra tests concentrated at just 11 centres on the east coast, the second contract will provide tests across the Republic.

While a list of the locations of the new test centres has yet to be released, the Road Safety Authority (RSA) has said they will be concentrated on areas where waiting times are longest and may include areas where there is not currently an RSA testing centre.

The winner of the second, larger contract - SGS Ireland - also won the first contract to provide 46,000 tests, a contract it expects to complete by the end of August.

The firm also operates the National Car Test (NCT) and it is understood that many of the new test centres will share premises with NCT centres.

Including the privatised tests, some 286,000 provisional drivers will be offered driving tests this year, said Noel Brett, chief executive of the RSA.

At this level, the number of driving tests will exceed demand for the first time in years.

As a result average waiting times for a test are expected to fall to around 12 weeks by December, he said.

Another significant difference with the second contract is that RSA supervisors are to be involved in the training of SGS testing staff to try and ensure the standard of SGS tests matches those conducted by the RSA.

The RSA is also requiring SGS to acquire "formal third-party accreditation", similar to an ISO or Q Mark, for its driver testing services.

Mr Brett said this was not a requirement in the first contract and was being introduced "to give us an extra assurance on top of the training from the Swedish training".

He added that there was no external verification standard for the RSA testing service and said "we will have to get to that as soon as possible".

Mr Brett said he had "no concerns" over the quality of the testing service offered to date by SGS and said the higher pass rate for tests with the private firm (57 per cent compared with 52 per cent for the RSA) was due to a range of factors including demographics and the greater availability of tuition in the Leinster region. "We are happy enough with the testing, we just want to augment it. We are learning more about the business of testing all the time."

He said a small number of senior RSA testers would be involved in training driver testers recruited by SGS. This would "ensure the commonality of the testing", he said, adding that SGS would pay for this training.

The second contract, which is estimated to be worth €7-€8 million, is designed to run for about 15 months, after which Mr Brett expects that the capacity of the RSA to provide over 190,000 tests per annum should meet demand.

A second outsourcing contract was a central part of a €10 million Budget allocation to try and reduce waiting times to no more than two months.

Mr Brett also confirmed that the RSA is in negotiations with two landlords for the provision of a new testing centre in Tallaght, one of the busiest centres in the State. The lease on the existing centre expires in August.

"It is difficult to get premises with parking and where you don't have to drive 20 minutes to the test route but we don't expect to have any disruptions to the service in Tallaght," he said.

There were 135,800 people awaiting a driving test at the end of May.