Hundreds of driving tests postponed due to backlog of applications

Driving-test centres have been forced to postpone hundreds of appointments for tests due to the backlog of applications.

A sharp rise in the number of applicants in the last two months, particularly in the east and south-east, has led to a large number of people having their tests postponed indefinitely, pending new availability.

The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, admitted "quite a number of tests" had had to be rescheduled, although he could not give precise numbers.

Mr Brennan also said yesterday that the practice which allows drivers to fail a test and continue driving unaccompanied was about to be stopped.

"I have made it quite clear that this practice has to finish. The legislation is being finalised and very soon it will be compulsory to pass a test in order to drive on our roads."

Applications for tests increased dramatically this year, following Mr Brennan's announcement last Christmas that he intended to take provisional drivers off the road. While a substantial increase in applications had been expected following the announcement, the huge rush to get on the list was not predicted, Mr Brennan said.

"The waiting lists have been swelling up big time. The average wait is now 42 weeks; a year ago it was only half that," he said.

There are 232,000 applicants on the list, up from 160,000 in 2000. Mr Brennan said he did not regret his statement on provisional drivers, even though the resources were not in place to cope with the demand for tests.

"I made it quite clear that everybody has to have a driving licence."

Despite the problems which the backlog of applications has caused, he said, he was glad to have "flushed out" the thousands of people who, he said, had no intention of ever taking a driving test.

Mr Brennan said he also intended to propose that provisional drivers would have to be on the waiting list for a minimum length of time, possibly three months, before they would be allowed to sit a test. "A whole lot of people sitting the test aren't ready, and fail straight off."

A driver testing agency, run as a semi-State agency, would be established in March, Mr Brennan said, to run the system with a "more professional, commercial" approach.

He could not say when the backlog would finally clear, but he had no intention of offering an amnesty to any provisional drivers.