Calls for action to cut waiting times for driving tests have intensified after a survey found delays cost provisional drivers €47 million a year in insurance.
Waiting times as long as 16 months for a driving test was costing provisional drivers €47 million in insurance per year as they had to pay higher premiums as learners, the survey by Macra na Feirme and Irish Farmers Journal showed.
The Macra national president, Mr Thomas Honner, said the current situation was intolerable.
"The Minister for Transport is constantly promising to deal with the issue but all that is happening is that waiting lists are getting longer and longer.
"Real and decisive action is required immediately by the Minister to solve this crisis," Mr Honner said.
He said he had recently written to the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, outlining his concerns and putting forward suggestions to resolve the backlog.
The first was that Mr Brennan would announce and implement a plan for dealing with the problem, setting out clear targets to reduce waiting lists to no more than three months.
Mr Honner said the Department of Transport should also set up a group of stakeholders, including young drivers, to conduct an immediate overhaul of all aspects of driver training and licensing.
Finally, pending the implementation of a plan to reduce waiting lists, drivers who were not given a test within three months of applying should be refunded their €38 driving test application fee, he said.
Another proposal was made yesterday by PD Senator, Mr John Minihan, who called for the employment of retired Defence Forces instructors as testers to cut the backlog.
He said the Defence Forces testers should also be used to target waiting list blackspots.
"These practical measures would help to quickly cut the waiting list and thus reduce the insurance costs for thousands of young drivers across the country without any diminution in testing standards," Mr Minihan said.
The Labour Party spokesman on enterprise, trade and employment, Mr Brendan Howlin TD, also called for action.
"Driving test applicants in Ireland must now wait on average a full year to sit the test. At the same time they are free to drive unaccompanied on our roads as long as they have met the high insurance charges levied on provisional drivers," he said.
Since Mr Brennan took office over two years ago he had repeatedly signalled his intention to cut times, yet even his latest initiative - the new Driver Testing and Standards Authority announced in May - would not be up and running for some time, Mr Howlin said.
"The new measures must be brought forward in the Dáil immediately after the summer recess to improve standards on our roads. We cannot expect to see the number of deaths on our roads reduce until we take seriously the issue of driving standards and testing," he said.
Yesterday, the Minister of State for Transport, Dr Jim McDaid, acknowledged the problem was the lack of driver testers.
He said legislation was ready to go through the Dáil which would allow for the recruitment of temporary testers.
"The legislation would allow us to take on people on a part-time basis and we could target specific areas. If 50 more testers could be taken on, it would clear the backlog," he said.