Brennan to set out plans for driving test backlog

Measures to ease the backlog in driving licence applications - now increasing at a record 1,000 a day - will include evening and weekend driver-testing.

The measures, to be unveiled by the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, next month, are a response to unprecedented demand, which has already led to a computer crash at the Department.

Waiting lists for driving tests have soared since the Minister announced he would end the system where a driver may fail a test and continue driving unaccompanied on a provisional licence.

In addition to asking applicants to sit driving tests at weekends and in the evenings during summer daylight time, the department plans to call back recently-retired staff. Other former staff, who have been trained in testing, will be offered short-term and part-time contracts.

A number of additional secretarial and time-management measures are also expected to be announced by the Minister to increase the throughput of each examiner's tests each day.

The Minister has, however, ruled out an earlier plan to recruit testers from Northern Ireland after discussions with the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ms Angela Smith. In the UK, testers also take part in the vehicle testing procedure, leaving little extra capacity to help Mr Brennan.

The industrial relations elements of the proposed measures are being worked out between the Department of Transport and the main testers' union, Impact.

A spokeswoman for Impact, Ms Louise O'Donnell, yesterday confirmed that the package was being examined, and that there was a "positive" attitude to the proposals among staff.

However, she said, the measures had not yet been agreed and a condition of acceptance would be that overtime working would have to be on a voluntary basis.

Earlier this month, the figures for incoming applications reached 1,000 a month - a figure which might lead to a total close to 300,000 for the year.

Currently there are about 200,000 tests carried out each year and the department estimates that the new measures might increase this by up to 40,000.

However, about 54 per cent of applicants fail and have to take the test again.

The Minister has ruled out an "amnesty" hand-out of full driving licences, similar to that carried out by the then minister for the environment Mr Sylvester Barrett in 1980.