Learner drivers should have their tests for free if the Road Safety Authority (RSA) cannot provide them within the 10-week target waiting time, the Dáil has heard.
Social Democrats transport spokeswoman Jennifer Whitmore said if there was a financial sanction it would “motivate” the RSA to provide the service more promptly.
Ms Whitmore said the same service level agreement should apply for the €85 driving test that applies with the NCT (National Car Test) – “that if they don’t provide the test within a certain period of time that the test is free”.
The NCT customer charter says a free test will be provided where an appointment cannot be offered within 28 days, subject to conditions.
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The Wicklow TD was speaking during a Dáil debate on driver-test waiting times. There are some 83,000 applicants waiting an average of 27 weeks nationally, for more than 40 weeks in locations with most demand and 43 weeks in Tallaght, Co Dublin, the test centre with the longest waiting time.
Opening the debate, Minister of State for Transport Seán Canney said the first of 75 recent driver tester recruits began carrying out tests at the end of April, and “we should see some progress in reducing waiting times by the end of May”. This would accelerate across the summer with additional testers in place.
The Minister rejected an initial RSA plan to restore the waiting times to 10 weeks by November, because “people cannot wait another six months for the service to be restored”.
[ Driving test ‘amnesty’ ruled out for experienced learnersOpens in new window ]
Under a revised plan, the RSA now believes “with some additional measures” it can achieve the target by September. It will report progress fortnightly and if ongoing targets are not met, he wants immediate contingency planning for “temporary support from retired testers or the driving instructor sector”.
Mr Canney said a record 275,000 driving tests took place last year, 10 per cent above RSA projections. He said he expects new test centres in South Dublin and Drogheda soon.
Sinn Féin justice spokesman Pa Daly cast doubt on the Minister’s target waiting time hopes. In April last year, the then minister “claimed we would get back to the 10-week waiting time early this year” but “things have got far worse”.
The 83,000 people waiting for a test “is up 10,000 since the start of the year and 20,000 over the past six months”.
His party colleague Pearse Doherty said it is no wonder the gardaí reported a 95 per cent increase in the number of detections of unaccompanied drivers. “They’re taking a risk, obviously a risk they shouldn’t be taking, they’re getting caught by the gardaí. If there’s an accident, they wouldn’t be insured.”
He said “they want to drive legally, they want to get the driving test and the State is preventing them getting it in a reasonable time”.
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Fine Gael TD Emer Currie said 5,000 vehicles were seized from learner drivers, but there are 375,000 people with learner permits and a recent survey found 28 per cent were unaccompanied drivers.
Greater commitment was needed “in clamping down on unaccompanied learner drivers”. She added: “Fourteen learner drivers were involved in [fatal] collisions in 2023; fines of €160 and two penalty points are simply not enough.”
She also called for an immediate end to the loophole where learner drivers can apply for but not take their test, and then continue to drive with a provisional licence.
Fianna Fáil TD Cathal Crowe disagreed and said “learner drivers should be allowed to drive without someone accompanying them in the car”.
Mr Crowe said that West of Ennis, in his Co Clare constituency, there is no public transport of any significance and students who could not afford on-campus accommodation had to drive.
[ More than 68,000 learners awaiting driving test, some as long as seven monthsOpens in new window ]
“We’re criminalising all these young people with the requirement that they have an accompanied driver in the car with them.”
Labour Dublin South West TD Ciarán Ahearn said about 18,500 people in Tallaght are waiting 10 months for a test, including a constituent whose mother has Alzheimer’s disease and is no longer able to drive. Her son cannot help her “because he is still waiting on a driving test”.
